Abel RKay

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - When Jorge Bergoglio finished studying chemistry at high school his mother asked him what he would study next. "Medicine," replied the skinny 19-year-old, according to his younger sister, Maria Elena. Bergoglio's mother cleared a storage room in the family's working-class Buenos Aires   home for him to use as a study. Every day, after his morning job in a lab, he would arrive home and disappear into the room. One morning, though, his mother got a surprise. In the room, she found not anatomy or medicine texts but books on theology and Catholicism. Perturbed at his change of course, she confronted her eldest son. "What is this?" she asked. Bergoglio responded calmly: "It's medicine for the soul." For the man who last week took over at the head of the  Catholic Church , the shift from medicine to religion was the first of many in a career that has often defied expectations. It was also an early hint at ...

Britney Spears keeps it busy in Sin City. The "Scream & Shout" singer spent last weekend in Las Vegas but she wouldn't have come at all if her much-discussed Vegas residency was not a "done deal," the Las Vegas Sun reported. With new boyfriend David Lucado in tow, Spears flew to Vegas Friday and checked into Caesars Palace, the Sun reported. She attended a charity Cirque du Soleil performance, sneaking in just as the curtain went up and leaving just before the show ended. Spearstweeted a photo of herself, Lucado and her manager, Larry Rudolph, smiling in their seats together. Spears' management and production team met with executives at Caesars Entertainment Saturday, which owns Planet Hollywood, and then checked out the PH Live theater, where Brit will have her residency. Spears, Lucado and her entourage then lunched at the Meatball Spot restaurant, owned by Top Chef Seattle contestant Carla Pellegrino. The couple chowed down on meatball s...

Captain  Lionel Messi  missed an easy chance near the end as his  Argentina team had to settle for a 1-1 draw with  Bolivia  in a World Cup qualifier played at high altitude on Tuesday. The third draw in a row between the two teams kept  Argentina top of the South American group  with 24 points from 11 matches. Bolivia have nine points from the same number of games. The former world champions have now gone four games without a victory against Bolivia since being crushed 6-1 on their previous visit to the Hernando Siles stadium, nearly 4,000 metres above sea level. With five minutes remaining Messi had an opportunity to win the match for  Argentina , stealing the ball from a defender and bearing down on goal with only  Sergio Galarza  to beat but the goalkeeper blocked his attempt to thread the ball between his legs. "I hesitated a bit. It's terrible playing at altitude," said Messi who appeared at times to be suffering th...

Justin Bieber is being investigated for allegations of misdemeanor battery and making threats following a verbal altercation with a neighbor, a law enforcement official told ABC News. L.A. County Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore told ABC News that the incident took place at 9 a.m. today at the singer’s home in Calabasas, Calif. Bieber’s neighbor later filed a battery report, alleging that the 19-year-old singer made physical contact with him and threatened him. The pop star’s rep did not respond immediately to ABC News’ request for comment. The neighbor was complaining to Bieber about loud parties at the singer’s home while the singer was away. Quoting a source connected to Bieber’s security, the website said the singer told the neighbor to leave his property but did not have any physical contact with him. The investigation is ongoing. The singer has been touring in Europe. He played in Poland last night, but, according to Whitmore, had returned to his home by...

Unaweza kuielezeaje mechi hii ya Stars v Morocco?

ALL eyes will be on the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam this Sunday when the national football team, the Taifa Stars, host Morocco in a mouthwatering Group C match of the 2014 World Cup qualifier. The match could go a long way to deciding whether Taifa Stars progresses further in the competition. Taifa Stars are currently placed second in Group C of the World Cup qualifiers with three points from two matches. They are one point adrift of group leaders Cote d'Ivoire, with Morocco occupying third with two points, one ahead of bottom-placed Gambia. Therefore a win on Sunday would keep alive Tanzania's dream to reach the World Cup final for the first time ever. It may sound like wishful thinking but the team is capable of achieving that feat-- they have got the quality and are enjoying their best form at the moment. With determination and self belief, nothing is impossible. A glance at Taifa Stars' performance in their last international friendly ties suggests that ...

Story By Rosina John The Citizen Correspondent Fifty-two supporters of Muslim cleric Ponda Issa Ponda board a Prisons Department bus at Dar es Salaam’s Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday after they were each handed a one-year jail sentence for rioting last month to press for Sheikh Ponda’s release on bail. PHOTO | FIDELIS FELIX Dar es Salaam. Fifty-two followers of Muslim Cleric Sheikh Ponda Issa Ponda have been sentenced to a year in jail for rioting. They faced three counts each in total but Resident Magistrate Sundi Fimbo said the sentences would run concurrently, meaning they would serve only a year behind bars. But Mr Waziri Omary Toy walked out of court a free man after the prosecution failed to prove the charges against him. The men had been accused of conspiracy, unlawful assembly and rioting. They were arrested on February 15 this year after they took to the streets with the aim of putting pressure on the director of public prosecution to r...

The Uruguayan confessed that he would talk to rivals with greater prospects of competing in European competition than the Reds Via b / r Liverpool  striker  Luis Suarez  has admitted that he could leave Anfield and would talk to any interested clubs, even though he is "very happy" on Merseyside. The Uruguayan, who tops the Premier League scoring charts with 22 goals, confessed that he could be lured away from Liverpool by the prospect of Champions League football. Brendan Rodgers’ side crashed out of the Europa League in the last 32 against Zenit St Petersburg and haven’t taken part in Europe’s premier club competition since the 2008-09 season. “You never know in football,” Suarez told  AFP when asked if he could be on the move. “A player’s ambition is always there, the ambition of wanting to play in elite teams is always there. “I’m in a world-class team, an elite team like Liverpool. And if another team comes around with more prospects of competing in i...

Source: Rolling Stone To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From: Tomas Young I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care. I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they ...

Mshambuliaji wa zamani wa Chelsea ya Uingereza Didier Drogba ameachwa kwenye kikosi cha timu yake ya taifa ya Cote d'Ivoire kwenye mashindano ya kufuzu kushiriki kombe la dunia katika mechi yao dhidi na Gambia itakayochezwa siku ya Jumamosi.   Drogba ameshindwa kumridhisha kocha wake Sabri Lamouchi baada ya timu hiyo kuondolewa kwenye nusu fainali ya African Cup of Nations na inasemekana kwa mujibu wa Xinhua kwamba mshambuliaji huyo wa Galatasaray inawezekana ukawa ndiyo mwisho wake kuitumikia timu yake ya taifa. Lamouchi alisema kwamba hajamchagua  kwenye kikosi Drogba kwa ajili ya mechi ya Jumamosi kwa sababu anataka kumpa muda wa kufanya mazoezi na kuongeza jitihada ili arudi na kuwa Drogba yule aliyezoeleka zamani.f 

Why did one of Africa’s most wanted war criminals suddenly arrive at the American Embassy, appearing to give up? Laura Heaton reports. For the past three days, Bosco  Ntaganda , also known as “The Terminator,” has been holed up at the American embassy in Rwanda. One of Africa’s most wanted war criminals, Ntaganda was a leader of the M23 in eastern Congo, until he apparently lost control of the notorious rebel group, and began fearing for his own life. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has had a warrant out for Ntaganda for years on charges of recruiting child soldiers as well as for murder, rape, and sexual slavery. But despite being on this international black list since 2006, Ntaganda’s fall has been relatively swift and the circumstances of his surrender remain a mystery. But as Tony Gambino, former head of USAID in the Democratic Republic of Congo, put it: “There was never a good endgame for Bosco.” Gambino, now an adjunct professor at Georgetown Unive...