If you have one of these 10 jobs, it will take more than 100 years to save to buy a house

(Picture: Getty)

Today in depressing house price news…

So there’s new (terribly grim) research which has revealed just how long you should expect it to take save a deposit for a house if you’re in one of the following ten jobs.

The deposits have been calculated based on a £202,765 property (the average price for first time buyers in the UK) and the mortgage loans are 4.5 times the estimated salaries.

For example, if somebody earned £10,000 a year they could get a £45,000 mortgage loan, so the remainder of the house price would have to be paid in the deposit, which explains why they are dramatically inflated. Yikes.

Dental nurse. (Shown above)
Estimated annual salary: £14,788

Maximum mortgage loan of 4.5 times earnings: £66,546

Deposit required for average first-time buyer property: £136,219

Annual saving (around 10 percent of annual wage): £1,314.30

Years taken: 103.6

Fitness Instructor.

(Picture: Getty)

Estimated annual salary: £10,540

Maximum mortgage loan of 4.5 times earnings: £47,430

Deposit required for average first-time buyer property: £155,335

Annual saving (around 10 percent of annual wage): £1,024.20

Years taken: 151.7

Hairdresser.

(Picture: Getty)

Estimated annual salary: £10,019

Maximum mortgage loan of 4.5 times earnings: £45,085.50

Deposit required for average first-time buyer property: £157,680

Annual saving (around 10 percent of annual wage): £978.40

Years taken: 161.2

Retail cashier.

(Picture: Getty)

Estimated annual salary: £9,160

Maximum mortgage loan of 4.5 times earnings: £441,220

Deposit required for average first-time buyer property: £161,545

Annual saving (around 10 percent of annual wage): £902.80

Years taken: 178.9

Kitchen assistant.

(Picture: Getty)

Estimated annual salary: £8,975

Maximum mortgage loan of 4.5 times earnings: £40,387.50

Deposit required for average first-time buyer property: £162,378

Annual saving (around 10 percent of annual wage): £886.50

Years taken: 183.2

Cleaner.

(Picture: Getty)

Estimated annual salary: £7,919

Maximum mortgage loan of 4.5 times earnings: £35,635.50

Deposit required for average first-time buyer property: £167,130

Annual saving (around 10 percent of annual wage): £791.90

Years taken: 221

Waiter/Waitress.

(Picture: Getty)

Estimated annual salary: £7,554

Maximum mortgage loan of 4.5 times earnings: £33,993

Deposit required for average first-time buyer property: £168,772

Annual saving (around 10 percent of annual wage): £755.40

Years taken: 223.4

Bar staff.

(Picture: Getty)

Estimated annual salary: £7,404

Maximum mortgage loan of 4.5 times earnings: £33,318

Deposit required for average first-time buyer property: £169,447

Annual saving (around 10 percent of annual wage): £740.40

Years taken: 228.9

Taxi Driver.

(Picture: Getty)

Estimated annual salary: £15,216

Maximum mortgage loan of 4.5 times earnings: £68,472

Deposit required for average first-time buyer property: £134,293

Annual saving (around 10 percent of annual wage): £1,343.40

Years taken: 100

Care escort.

(Picture: Getty)

Estimated annual salary: £7,244

Maximum mortgage loan of 4.5 times earnings: £32,598

Deposit required for average first-time buyer property: £170,167

Annual saving (around 10 percent of annual wage): £724.40

Years taken: 234.9

Props to HouseSimple.com for the figures.

Metro UK

Up close and personal with the gang members of El Salvador: Inside the prison that is so dangerous even the guards won't go in

Penas Ciudad Barrios is a prison exclusively housing inmates from the Mara Salvatrucha gang in El Salvador

The prison, built for 800, now houses 2,500 prisoners who run their own 'society' complete with bakery and hospital 

In August, El Salvador saw the highest number of murders since its bloody 12-year civil war ended in 1992

Their faces and bodies are covered in ink, telling the stories of the crimes they have committed and in honour of who they have done so all over their bodies.

They are drug pushers, murderers and weapons dealers - members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), a gang so feared in El Salvador that they have been left to run their own prison.

In Penas Ciudad Barrios, the Mara Salvatrucha control their own miniature society of some 2,500 incarcerated members, complete with a bakery, workshops, a hospital and rehab.

Marked for life: Two young members of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang show off their face tattoos in Penas Ciudad Barrios

The prison guards and the El Salvadorian army remain on the outside, ensuring that the prisoners stay behind bars, but doing very little to meddle in affairs on the other side of the gates.

Penas Ciudad Barrios is a maximum security prison exclusively housing Mara Salvatrucha gang members, located in the capital San Salvador.

In 2013, photographer Adam Hinton, from London, was granted access to the squalid gangland prison, originally built to house some 800 inmates, but now home to around 2,500 Mara Salvatrucha members, and the area of San Salvador populated by their families - Las Victorias.

‘The men stand around aimless with nothing to do except kill what seem like an infinity of minutes, hours and days,' Mr Hinton says.

'The vast majority of the inmates from the Barrios or slums. In El Salvador this is a place without hope or opportunity and the gang is the only real option. If the authorities catch you this is the place they literally dump you and forget about you - every inmate is made to feel just like that.’ 

Behind bars: Penas Ciudad Barrios is a maximum security prison exclusively housing Mara Salvatrucha gang members, located in the capital San Salvador, which is - in essence - run by the prisoners themselves

own miniature society of some 2,500 incarcerated members, complete with a bakery, workshops, a hospital and rehab

Roots: The Mara Salvatrucha was founded in Los Angeles area by El Salvadoran immigrants, and has since been brought back to their native country following repatriation

The violence between street gangs in the country is escalating, and last month, El Salvador saw the highest number of murders since its bloody 12-year civil war ended in 1992.

The National Forensics Institute (ILM) said there were 911 homicides in August, with 52 occurring on August 23, making it the deadliest month in nearly a quarter of a century.

From January to August, El Salvador recorded 4,246 homicides, an average of 17.5 a day, and up 67 percent on the same eight-month period in 2014.

Gang violence in El Salvador: Bryan's story

Feared: For years, the gang members have been left to run the prison, with the guards remaining on the outside

Danger: The violence between street gangs in El Salvador is escalating and last month saw the highest number of murders since in 1992

Violence has risen steadily in El Salvador since a 2012 truce between the country's two main gangs, the Mara Salvatrucha and its rival Barrio 18, began to fall apart last year. The truce had helped reduce the Central American nation's murder rate in mid-2013 to around five per day, a 10-year low.

The country's police estimates that 80 percent of the homicides are related to purges and score-settling between the country's gangs.

El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world, according to United Nations statistics, with a 2012 murder rate of 41.2 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

According to some more recent measures, El Salvador has this year overtaken Honduras, which had a 2012 murder rate of 90.4 murders per 100,000 people, as the country with the world's highest murder rate.

MS-13 by Adam Hinton is published by Paul Belford ltd, £25

The Mail UK

Rare pictures offering a glimpse of the Queen off-guard unearthed by Sir Harry Secombe's son

David Secombe, who was working as a stills photographer for the BBC, reveals images taken over the course of eight months


HM Queen Elizabeth II en route to Edinburgh on the inaugural service of British Rail's 225 train Photo: David Secombe/ Camera Press

Choosing curtain fabric for her official home in Scotland and sharing a joke with her staff on board a newly-built train, these behind the scenes photographs of the Queen provide a rare glimpse of the monarch off-guard.

As the Queen prepares to enter the record books on Wednesday as our longest-reigning sovereign, these pictures, which have never been published before, are a reminder of just how little we know about her life beyond her public appearances.

They were taken by David Secombe, who was working as a stills photographer for the BBC during the filming of the documentary Elizabeth R in 1991.

Over the course of eight months Mr Secombe, son of the late comedian Sir Harry, documented the Queen’s working life in pictures for a BBC book and for publicity for the series.

He said: “It was only my second job for the BBC and my main memory of that time is just how technically difficult it was to take those pictures.

HM Queen Elizabeth II chooses curtain fabric duringher stay at Holyrood House in Edinburgh, Scotland Photo: David Secombe/ Camera Press

“I was shooting around a film crew, and I was there just to photograph what I observed, rather than interact with anyone.

“I felt a bit like David Attenborough - you don’t want anyone to know you’re there. My camera had to be inside a box called a blimp so that it was completely silent, but it just made me even more conspicuous because it was the size of a large biscuit tin.”

In one of the pictures, the Queen is shown contemplating curtain fabrics in different shades of red laid out on the floor for her to choose from during a stay at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, her official residence in Edinburgh. Two aides stand next to her to offer their own thoughts, if requested.

HM Queen Elizabeth II en route to Edinburgh on the inaugural service of British Rail's 225 train Photo: David Secombe/ Camera Press

Flying home from an official visit to Belfast, the Queen sits with a cup of coffee and a sheaf of papers spread on a table in front of her, showing that even when she has completed a successful high-profile engagement, there is no time for relaxing.

One moment of down time is captured as the Queen travels from London to Edinburgh on the inaugural voyage of British Rail’s new 225 train. Sitting on the armrest of her seat, she laughs as she shares a joke with fellow passengers.

After arriving at Holyroodhouse, the Queen sits on a settee watching the television news, before going through papers from her red boxes at her desk, as she does every day except Christmas Day. Another shot shows her opening correspondence at her desk in the blue drawing room at Buckingham Palace, another of her daily tasks.

HM Queen Elizabeth II pictured working on her red box of official papers Photo: David Secombe/ Camera Press

A final picture, which was used as a reference point for the opening scene of the Helen Mirren film The Queen, shows Her Majesty in full Order of the Garter robes sitting for a portrait by Andrew Festing at Buckingham Palace.

London-based Mr Secombe, 53, said that in all the time he was following the Queen he barely spoke to her.

“Because we were travelling around a lot you say hello and she gets used to you, and occasionally a few words would be said but it’s a delicate thing, you just want to stay in the background.”

HM Queen Elizabeth II pictured watching the news on television at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland Photo: David Secombe/ Camera Press

The BBC team accompanied the Queen on a rare trip to Belfast, which at the time was regarded as far more of a security risk than royal trips to Northern Ireland are now.

Mr Secombe said: “It was a big secret. No-one knew where we were going until we got to the airport. We were just told to be at the airport and then we were told we were going to Belfast.”

Asked if the commission changed his life, Mr Secombe said: “I think it got me noticed but the year after that I hardly got any work at all!

“It did, though, mean I got to do a couple of official portraits of the Queen in subsequent years, one of the Queen and Prince Charles in the 1990s and one for the Golden Jubilee in 2002.”

The Queen will surpass Queen Victoria’s record reign of 63 years seven months and two days at around 5.30pm on Wednesday. She will spend the morning opening a new railway line in the Borders before returning to Balmoral.

HM Queen Elizabeth II pictured on the flight home from Belfast after her historic visit to Northern Ireland Photo: David Secombe/ Camera Press

She will spend the evening with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children Prince George and Princess Charlotte, but the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will be carrying out engagements elsewhere after the Queen insisted the day should be “business as usual”.

Telegraph

The world according to population size

This fascinating map depicts countries according to their population and was made using Microsoft Paint

Russia is the world's largest country, but has a population of just 146.3m Photo: REDDIT/TeaDranks

You don’t need complicated software to make a fascinating map of the world.


Reddit user TeaDranks created this using none other than Microsoft Paint. It depicts countries according to their populations, with a single square representing 500,000 people.



The map is dominated by China and India, the only two nations in the world with more than one billion residents.



Japan, The Philippines and Indonesia have expanded wildly, while sparsely populated countries like Australia and Russia have shrunk beyond recognition.



Twenty-nine countries are too small to fit on the map, including Samoa, Saint Lucia, Andorra and - despite its geographical size - Greenland.



“The main problem was getting India and China to fit properly,”TeaDranks told i100.co.uk. “I got an outline of the country and gradually filled it into until all the squares were used up.



“The other problem was getting Africa to all fit together because of how disproportional it is. Desert countries like Libya and Niger are very sparse and Nigeria is super populated. Europe, North America and South America were fairly easy though.”


Similar maps have sought to depict the world, not by their physical size, but by their demographic importance on a range of subjects.

The Atlas of the Real World contains hundreds of examples, including this one - the size of each territory indicates the number of international immigrants living there:



Here, the size of each country indicates the proportion of international tourist trips made there:



This map show countries according to their wealth in the year 1:



This one shows wealth in the year 1900:



The size of each territory in this map represents the time spent by its armed forces fighting wars between 1945 and 2004:



This one represents the number of war deaths during that time:

Telegraph

PM: Israel not indifferent, but ‘too small’ to take in refugees

“Netanyahu says Jewish state must protect itself from influx of ‘illegal immigrants and perpetrators of terrorism’’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected the possibility of Israel taking in refugees from war-torn Syria, saying that while the Jewish state was not unsympathetic to the suffering of citizens across its border, it simply did not have the capacity to absorb masses of people.

“Israel is not indifferent to human tragedy; we conscientiously handled a thousand [people] who were wounded in the fighting in Syria and we have helped them rebuild their lives,” Netanyahu said during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

‎”However, Israel is a very small country. It has no demographic depth and has no geographic breadth,” the prime minister continued. “We must protect our borders against illegal immigrants and against the perpetrators of terrorism. We cannot allow Israel to be flooded with infiltrators.”

He added that Israel was contemplating sending aid packages to countries in Africa in an attempt to ensure that local residents do not find it necessary to migrate from their homes.

‎Netanyahu said that Israel would begin constructing a security fence along its eastern border in order to keep out migrants and refugees.

The prime minister’s comments came amid a growing debate among Israeli politicians over how Israel, with its national memory of the struggle by Jewish refugees to escape the Nazi regime, should respond to the regional migrant crisis to which the Syrian civil war is a major contributing factor.

Earlier Sunday, Deputy Minister for Regional Affairs Ayoub Kara called on Israel to take in thousands of refugees escaping the violence in Syria and noted that the Jewish state had a moral duty to do so because of the Holocaust.

On Saturday, opposition leader Isaac Herzog also said Israel was duty bound to take in refugees from Syria, a suggestion that was lambasted Sunday by Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz.

“What a lack of political wisdom and a lack of national responsibility,” Katz retorted in a post on his Facebook page, mentioning a much publicized offer by Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila to house refugees in his spare home.

“At least he [Herzog] should suggest, as did the prime minister of Finland, to take them into his house,” Katz wrote.

Tourism Minister Yariv Levin of Likud also against spoke out against the notion of Israeli taking in people from Syria, an enemy country.

“I suggest we stop with this custom of trying to find favor all the time,” he told Army Radio. “We must not take in people from an enemy state who could act against us from within Israel.”

Herzog said Saturday that the Jewish state cannot turn away refugees escaping danger.

“It is incumbent on Israel to take in refugees from the war and push for the establishment of an urgent international conference on the issue,” the Zionist Union chairman declared.

“Jews cannot be apathetic when hundreds of thousands of refugees are searching for safe haven,” he said, referring to the plight of Europe’s Jews in the run-up to the Holocaust.

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid, however, came out against Israel providing a safe haven for Syrian refugees, stressing that Israel must not take any steps that may in the future legitimatize the implementation of the right of return for Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, a senior member of the modern-Orthodox Tzohar organization, called on Israel to take in a limited number of refugees who are in immediate danger of persecution and death. Speaking with the Srugim website, Cherlow stressed that from a Jewish ethical standpoint, Israel must not ignore the crisis in Syria and in other countries. He said Israel must work to find a way to sort out the practical problems that would arise due to the possible absorption of refugees.

Israel said in June it was bracing for an influx of refugees on the Golan Heights, which is divided between Israel and Syria, after fighting on the plateau intensified. Druze residents of Israel have appealed to the government to help safeguard their brethren living on the other side of the border, where fighting between regime forces and rebels has been fierce.

More than four million people have fled their homes in the war-torn country, with Turkey and Lebanon taking in the lion’s share of refugees. Thousands of Syrian refugees have also flooded into Europe in the four years of bitter fighting.

‎A global outcry last week over an image of the body of a three-year-old Syrian child washed up on the Turkish shore after he and his brother and mother drowned trying to reach the island of Kos spurred European leaders to increase the numbers of refugees they accept.

I think I killed a man, says Eggheads panellist

CJ de Mooi made the revelation in his autobiography

CJ de Mooi, one of the five regulars on the BBC quiz show, admits he punched a man and threw him into a canal in Amsterdam in 1988

Eggheads brain CJ de Mooi has claimed he may have killed a man who tried to mug him while he lived on the streets two decades ago.

De Mooi, one of the five regular panellists on the popular BBC quiz show, said he punched a man who approached him with a knife, then threw him into a canal in Amsterdam in 1988.

In an extract from his autobiography, he wrote: "He caught me on the wrong day and I just snapped."

The 45-year-old former rent boy added: "I fully suspect I killed him. I've no idea what happened to him."

CJ de Mooi (third left) is a regular on quiz show Eggheads BBC

He said: "This is the one incident of my life I do regret. I was in a phone box and this old guy, obviously a massive drug user, came up behind me with a knife in his hand.

"He told me to turn around, open my bag and give him whatever was inside.

"It was the only outburst of violence I’ve ever done. That’s one of the main reasons why I absolutely abhor all violence."

It is reported that police in the city are now investigating the incident.

De Mooi, a former president of the English Chess Federation, also described how he grew up in a violent, racist and homophobic household in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, before running away in 1987.

"It was the only outburst of violence I’ve ever done. That’s one of the main reasons why I absolutely abhor all violence."

CJ de Mooi

In his late teens he became a prostitute in London and then moved to Amsterdam where he found himself homeless and penniless.


He was eventually spotted by a model scout and found a successful career which turned his life around.

Having appeared on and won a series of gameshows, he became a panellist on the popular BBC Two show in 2003.

In 2011, de Mooi got embroiled in a row at the British Chess Championships when he claimed he was barred from presenting the prizes because he was wearing a T-shirt promoting the gay rights organisation, Stonewall.

De Mooi later offered his resignation to the ECF, which was rejected.

Telegraph 

Buhari leaves for Ghana on Monday, to confer with Mahama

Buhari / Photo PT
By Levinus Nwabughiogu

ABUJA -To strengthen the regional ties of west Africa countries, President Muhammadu Buhari would undertake a one-day official visit to Accra, the Ghanaian capital on Monday.

The visit would afford President Buhari the opportunity of conferring with his Ghanaian counterpart, President John Dramani Mahama on bilateral relations, regional security, trade and other issues of common interest to Nigeria, Ghana and other members of the Economic Community of West African States.

The President is also expected to meet with members of the Nigerian community in Ghana and entrepreneurs living in the country.

He will be accompanied to Accra by the National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd.) and the Permanent Secretaries in the Federal Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Justice and Industry, Trade and Investment.

President Buhari would return to the country on Monday evening.

Vanguard

After attacks, Tanzanian children with albinism receive prosthetics

NEW YORK -- When you hear Kabula Nkarango Masanja's story, the idea that she could smile seems unimaginable.

"In 2010, I was sleeping with my mom," Kabula said. "To the room, two men came inside."

The 17-year-old girl from Tanzania lost her right arm five years ago. She was hunted in her homeland by human poachers for her albinism - a condition that leaves her with little to no pigment in her skin, eyes and hair.

She said the two men attacked her with a machete, cutting off her entire arm.

"They kept it," she said.

In Tanzania, albino body parts can sell for thousands of dollars on the black market. It's believed - by some - the parts hold supernatural powers and can be used in potions to bring good luck and wealth to the consumer.

Between 2000 and 2014, the United Nations reported that the country had seen more than 150 cases of attacks on people with albinism.

Elissa Montanti runs the Global Medical Relief Fund, a nonprofit she founded in Staten Island 17 years ago to help kids injured by war or natural disasters receive prosthetics. Her organization was featured on "60 Minutes" in 2011.

"I have never, never experienced anything like this before," Montanti said. "I've seen kids that have kicked a can and it exploded, dangled from a tree in Indonesia from the tsunami, the earthquake in Haiti. But this is something unimaginable."



Children with albinism who lost their hands to human poachers in Tanzania learn to use their new prosthetics at Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.
CBS NEWS

Earlier this year, Montanti read of an attack on 5-year-old Baraka Cosmas Lusambo. Men broke into his family's home in March while he was asleep.

"They hit my mother twice on her head," Baraka said in Swahili, through a translator. "Then they came to me. They cut off my hand."



Montanti brought Baraka, Kabula and three other children to the United States from Tanzania in June to receive prosthetics. The five children received their prosthetics at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.

"I feel good because it is going to help me in many different areas, which I cannot do with one hand," Kabula said.

"They will be able to grasp to pick up a pen, to write, to pick up a fork and eat," Montanti said. "This will definitely make them feel more whole, give them a sense of empowerment."

When they return home, they will be sheltered in safe houses run by Under the Same Sun - a Canadian organization that protects people with albinism in Tanzania.

Montanti plans to bring the children back to the United States as they grow to get their prosthetics refitted.

"There will be lots of tears, but I know I'm going to see them again," Montanti said.

Broadcast associate Matthew Kwiecinski contributed to this report.

© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Officials say they will follow Kim Davis to prison to oppose gay marriages

Kim Davis, an Apostolic Christian, was sent to prison in Kentucky on Thursday for her stance in refusing to follow court orders

 Jailed county clerk emerges as figurehead to campaigners opposing same-sex weddings as more promise to refuse Supreme Court ruling


The revolt over same-sex marriages is spreading across the Southern states of America after a county clerk was jailed for refusing to issue a wedding licence to a gay couple.

While her deputies began issuing licences on Friday, other officials said they would follow her lead in standing up for their beliefs.


Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, which campaigns against gay marriage, said efforts to make an example of Davis had backfired.


"Courage breeds courage, especially when it comes from unlikely places,” he said. “She may be the example that sparks a firestorm of resistance across this country."

A same sex marriage supporter waves a flag which reads "Born This Way" along West Main Street during a protest in front of the Rowan County Courthouse in Morehead, Kentucky Getty Images

Within 48 hours, Davis was being cited as a figurehead by others with the power to issue marriage licences.


Nick Williams, Alabama Probate Judge, said he had ordered his deputies not to issue any licences at all since the Supreme Court made gay marriage legal across the US in June.


"Absolutely, I feel the same way. This is a cause worth standing up for," he told Reuters.

It means Kentucky may not be the last battleground over same sex marriages.

As many as 12 counties in Alabama are not issuing marriage licences in a state where they law says judges "may" issue licenses – a line interpreted by some as meaning they also “may not”.

And it is not just the South, where many states had bans on gay marriage overturned by the Supreme Court decision, where opposition lingers.

In left-leaning Oregon, a county circuit court judge is facing an ethics review over his refusal to perform same-sex marriages.

100 Days in Office: How Buhari’s anti-corruption war has gone so far

At Chatham House in London February, Muhammadu Buhari declared that if elected president of Nigeria, he would prioritise the fight against corruption, as well as insecurity and unemployment.


“In the face of dwindling revenues, a good place to start the repositioning ‎of Nigeria’s economy is to swiftly tackle two ills that have ballooned under the present administration : waste and corruption,” Mr. Buhari said.


“And in doing this, I will, if elected, lead the way with the force of personal example.”


‎As President Buhari marks his first 100 days in office Sunday, not much seems to be happening to prove the anti-corruption war is on course.


Taofik Gani, a leader of the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State, said the anti-corruption efforts of the government have been more of “noise-making than action”.


“And it is our take in Lagos PDP that General Buhari may not be serious about fighting corruption in view of two readily available evidence,” said Mr. Gani, Publicity Secretary, PDP, Lagos State.


“First is that General Buhari himself cannot defend himself as incorruptible ‎for the reason of taking over a democratically elected government in 1983. Two, for being able to contest presidential elections at four different times, it would take only a super-rich person to do that.


“He was president, minister of petroleum, coordinator of Petroleum Trust Fund. In this capacity, he amassed wealth, so he should not over rate himself as being incorruptible.”


Mr. Gani said corrupt officials, including “former governors, ministers, and vice president”, are still associating with the president.


“If he was serious about fighting corruption, some people would have fled this country, but they are comfortable, moving along with the president’s entourage,” said Mr. Gani.


“In his first 100 days, the only area General Buhari has made effort to perform is on anti-corruption. And he has failed.”


While the Buhari government has accused the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan of monumental corruption, ministers who served under the government, have defended their performance and have characterised the new government’s corruption effort as more of media campaign.


According to the ministers, Mr. Jonathan did not only fight corruption vigorously, he supported the institutional development of strong systems and mechanisms to curb corruption in the public service and plug revenue leakages.


However, many Nigerians also believe Mr. Buhari’s presence, or “body language”, alone, has changed the game.


Ever-declining electricity megawatts suddenly climbed to new peaks, nearing 5,000 with the government investing no extra kobo.


The ministry of power said last week that since Mr. Buhari took office May 29, no case of pipeline vandalism had been recorded. Attacks on oil and gas facilities occurred almost weekly just before May, weakening the country’s energy output.


“If you have to compare with those who came before him, he’s doing very well,” said Debo Adeniran, Executive Director, Coalition Against Corrupt Leader.


“He really has not done anything on his own, just his body language is putting everybody under pressure.”


Mr. Buhari rode to election victory on the back of his perceived no-nonsense stance against corruption.


His election campaign speeches were incomplete without a mention of how corruption had debilitated the country and its institutions and how a President Buhari would turn things around.


“We plan to put priority on tackling corruption which has become blatant and widespread,” he said at one rally, vowing to rescue the nation from the “stranglehold” of the PDP.



“The rest of the world looks at Nigeria as the home of corruption. Nigeria is a country where stealing is not corruption.”


‎At his last campaign speech before the presidential election, Mr. Buhari emphasized that his government would have zero tolerance for corruption.


“I will set a personal example and run a government that truly serves the people rather than serve themselves and a privileged few,” the then presidential hopeful told a band of journalists in Abuja two days before the election.


“Like I have repeatedly maintained that if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria,” he warned.


As far as leading by example goes, many Nigerians believed by declaring his assets publicly within his first few weeks in office, Mr. Buhari would have set the tone for his war against corruption.


The president and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo finally did so last week after foot-dragging for over three months.


In August, the president inaugurated a Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption to advise his administration on how to reform Nigeria’s criminal justice system, and steps needed to fight corruption.


Also, in support of the government’s efforts, a US$5 million Anti-Corruption and Criminal Justice Reform Fund was established by the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Open Society Foundation‎ to assist the work of the committee.


Corrupt-free cabinet


Mr. Buhari has yet to appoint ministers 100 days after taking office, and he has angered even his supporters with his choices for key administration positions. Critics see the appointments as regionally skewed.


The president said in July he was reforming the government before naming his cabinet. Officials also say the president is careful not to appoint corrupt people into offices.


While he has been lambasted for not adhering to the constitutionally stipulated regional balance in his appointments, Mr. Buhari has faced less criticism for over the integrity of those he has appointed so far.


“The president’s distaste for corruption is evident in his selection of people that don’t carry excess baggage,” said Onyekachi Ubani, a former chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja branch.


“We want him to sustain the tempo and not be distracted by some of the forces that are actually fighting back.


“And I want to say this with every sense of seriousness, they should not engage in any press war with any person. And no press trial too,” sad Mr. Ubani.‎

Premium Times

Saudi King Salman to visit D.C., books entire hotel

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz in the Oval Office of the White House September 4, 2015.

When you're royalty, go big or don't go at all.

That's at least true for Saudi Arabia's King Salman, who touched down on U.S. soil Thursday to the sight of dozens of black luxury cars awaiting his arrival at Joint Base Andrews located just outside Washington in Prince George's County, Md.

Wall Street Journal reporter Carol Lee snapped a photo of his epic entourage. (On a recent trip to France, Salman had a 10-vehicle motorcade, and hired an additional 400 luxury car drivers, the BBC reported.)

The king of the oil-rich nation is here to meet with President Obama at the White House on Friday to talk all things involving the Iran nuclear deal and its wider effect on the Middle East. Their face-to-face happens before the Senate returns next week and takes up the deal, just as Obama has rallied enough support for it from Democrats.

It's the Saudi king's first visit to the United States since ascending to the throne in January after the death of his brother, King Abdullah. He skipped the May summit of Gulf nations held at Camp David.


And his visit is huge — like "renting out the entire Four Seasons hotel and making it gold" huge.

Politico reported that the lavish hotel chain's Georgetown location has been redecorated, rolling out enough red carpet to keep Salman and his family from ever touching the asphalt. Almost everything has a golden touch, regulars observed, from the mirrors to the hat racks — how elegant!


The entire hotel is reportedly booked through Saturday for the king and his entourage, and just in time for Labor Day weekend.

USA Today