Nigeria's Online Blog

Rapper Heavy D, who scored hit singles such as "Now That We Found Love", died on Tuesday after falling at his Beverly Hills home, according to media reports. He was 44.
Celebrity news website TMZ.com said the rapper, whose real name is Dwight Errington Myers, was found on a walkway and an ambulance was called. When emergency workers arrived he was conscious and speaking but died later at a nearby hospital.

Beverly Hills police confirmed the basic information, but declined to release a name pending family notification. Police Lt. Mark Rosen said a man was found on a walkway at 2:25 p.m. EST, conscious and talking, but having difficulty breathing. He was rushed to a hospital, where he died on Tuesday afternoon.

Further details were undisclosed pending an investigation, but Rosen said there were no signs of foul play.

The singer's New York-based agent was not immediately available for comment.

Rotund rapper Heavy D was born in Jamaica and moved to Mt. Vernon, New York as a child. He enjoyed hip hop music as a kid and formed his first group, the Boyz, with high school friends who took the stage names DJ Eddie F, Trouble T-Roy and G-Wiz.

The group became Heavy D & The Boyz and released their first album in 1987, which included singles "Mr. Big Stuff" and "The Overweight Lover's in the House." Their breakout album came with 1989's "Big Tyme," which included the hits "Somebody for Me" and "We Got Our Own Thang."

The band met with tragedy in 1990 when Trouble T-Roy died in an accident. One year later, they scored their biggest hit with the album "Peaceful Journey" and single "Now That We Found Love," which reached the top five on R&B charts and crossed over to mainstream pop audiences.

A string of hits followed in the 1990s. The band sang the theme song for popular TV show "In Living Color," and Heavy D's 1999 CD "Heavy" became his seventh album to chart among the R&B top 10.

During those years, the rapper also began acting, working in small roles on film and TV before landing a role in high-school TV drama "Boston Public". His film work included parts in "The Cider House Rules," "Step Up" and "Big Trouble."

Heavy D performed at the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards and at the Michael Jackson tribute show in Cardiff, Wales, both in October.

Mobile phone giant Nokia unveiled two new smartphones in London Wednesday as it sought to boost its flagging fortunes in the booming market.

The Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 - Nokia's first handsets using the Windows Phone operating system - are the company's attempt to gain traction in the smartphone market, dominated by Apple's iPhones and Google's Android operating system.

As he revealed the Lumia 800 Nokia, Chief Executive Stephen Elop said the company was "signaling our intent right now here today to be today's leaders in smartphone design and craftsmanship."

The Lumia phones put the emphasis on music, navigation and sport, offering music mixes, navigational tools and a partnership with ESPN for mobile sports coverage.

The announcement follows Nokia's partnership with Microsoft in February. The new handsets were revealed at the company's annual Nokia World conference. The phones, Elop said, were part of "a new dawn for Nokia."

Nokia also launched four new mobile phones which it said blurred the line between smartphones and more traditional handsets, offering keyboards and touchscreens, combined with internet access and integrated social networking.

Elop is under pressure to rejuvinate the company which, despite selling the highest volume of mobile phones worldwide, has suffered in the smartphone market. Earlier this year, Apple overtook Nokia to become the world's top smartphone maker.

Nokia announced last month that it plans to cut 3,500 jobs by the end of 2012. These are in addition to 4,000 job cuts announced in April, and a part of a major restructuring.

MONTVERDE, Florida (AP) — Court records show comedian Chris Tucker is facing foreclosure on his multimillion-dollar mansion in central Florida.
Records show SunTrust Bank filed papers against the California resident with Lake County courts earlier this week.
According to documents, Tucker bought the 10,000-square-foot (3,050-meter) lakefront home for $6 million in 2007 — before the housing market crashed. The bank claims he still owes more than $4.4 million, but the county property appraiser has the home currently assessed at $1.6 million.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that the house is located in the Bella Collina development, a 1,900-acre (770-hectare) community overlooking lakes and a championship golf course.
Calls placed by The Associated Press to Tucker's Hollywood representatives seeking comment were not returned as of late Thursday night.
Tucker is best known for staring alongside Jackie Chan in three "Rush Hour" films. Other credits include "Friday," ''Money Talks" and "The Fifth Element.

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has acknowledged that he fathered a child with a member of his household staff, a revelation that apparently prompted wife Maria Shriver to leave the couple's home before they announced their separation last week.

Schwarzenegger and Shriver jointly announced May 9 that they were splitting up after 25 years of marriage. Yet, Shriver moved out of the family's Brentwood mansion earlier in the year after Schwarzenegger acknowledged the child is his, The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

"After leaving the governor's office I told my wife about this event, which occurred over a decade ago," Schwarzenegger told the Times in a statement that also was sent to The Associated Press early Tuesday. "I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family. There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused. I have apologized to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry.

"I ask that the media respect my wife and children through this extremely difficult time," the statement concluded. "While I deserve your attention and criticism, my family does not."

Schwarzenegger's representatives did not comment further. A spokesman for the former first lady told the Times she had no comment.

The Times did not publish the former staffer's name nor that of her child but said the woman worked for the family for 20 years and retired in January.

In an interview Monday before Schwarzenegger issued his statement, the former staffer said another man — her husband at the time — was the child's father. When the Times later informed the woman of the governor's statement, she declined to comment further.

The child was born before Schwarzenegger began his seven-year stint in public office.

Shriver stood by her husband during his 2003 gubernatorial campaign after the Los Angeles Times reported accusations that he had a history of groping women. Schwarzenegger later said he "behaved badly sometimes."

In his first public comments since the couple announced their breakup, Schwarzenegger said last week that he and Shriver "both love each other very much."

"We are very fortunate that we have four extraordinary children and we're taking one day at a time," he said at a Los Angeles event marking Israeli independence. Their children range in age from 13 to 21.

Since his term as California governor ended in early January, Schwarzenegger, 63, has hopscotched around the world, his wife nowhere in sight. While the "Terminator" star appeared confident about the future since exiting politics, cutting movie deals and fashioning himself as a global spokesman for green energy, Shriver, known for her confidence, seemed unsettled.

Shriver, 55, maintained her own identity when her husband entered politics, though she gave up her job at NBC. Their union was often tested in Sacramento, where the former action star contended with a rough seven years of legislative gridlock, a budget crisis and lingering questions about his fidelity.

Growing up, a pair of jeans trouser was that easy piece of clothing that you could just grab and put on. That is because among us then, we used to say with jeans, you could never go wrong, which was because you would look decent while looking beautiful at the same time. Our parents also felt comfortable with it to the point that anytime I was going for lessons then, my mum would insist on a jeans because according to her, it covered all the parts that ought to be covered and in case of an emergency I would be able to flee the scene easily.

This view was also shared by most of the mothers in the neighbourhood where I grew up. However that can no longer be said of jeans with the advent of the Low Waist Jeans. For readers, who are not of the women folk, I may have to explain what Low waist jeans stands for. Well, like the name implies, it is that jeans that hangs loosely at the waist and can hardly move up beyond the waist line. As a matter of fact, it drops lower when the wearer is in motion. Since this particular jeans found its way into the market, it has pushed the usual jeans we grew up with off the scene, this is because most traders would rather have the Low Waist in their shops because that is what most ladies demand for. So what is the problem, you may be asking and rightfully so, what is the problem? Well I will tell you, these days, it is very easy to see women under wears unlike in those days when a lady would be moved to tears if a member of the opposite sex as much as catches a glimpse of her under garment. At times it is not only the under garment that is exposed, something much more is. So you would ask why ladies are rushing for this design of jeans as against the others. One of the reasons a lady gave me was, "It is not our fault, these Low Waist jeans are like that. You can't pull them up beyond a certain level".

So I decided to investigate further and discovered that it is very true that with the Low Waist jeans, the tendency for the under wears and at times parts of the body to be exposed is very high. But the jeans alone cannot be held responsible for the rate of exposure being witnessed. You can no longer stand behind a lady wearing a jeans comfortably because you are scared that at any moment her under wears would be exposed, especially if she attempts to raise her hands. Don't even talk about when she bends down to pick up a pen or a piece of paper.

If you are very observant, you would notice that ladies, when alighting from cabs these days are either pulling down their tops or pulling up their jeans. Should looking good be so much trouble? But as I sympathized with the few ladies who claimed that they didn't have a choice because, according to them that was what was available, I took a trip to the market to see for myself. And in the market, I discovered that there were other designs of jeans apart from the Low Waist, like the Boot cut and the Straight jeans. And so I enquired from most of the sellers why it seemed like ladies preferred the Low Waist and they all said the ladies claimed it gave better fitting. And when I said to a trader in Wuse Market, Jude, that I wanted a pair of jeans, all the samples he brought out were the Low Waist jeans, that is because he just assumed naturally that, that is what I would want.

But is the problem really with the jeans or its users. Or are ladies under the illusion that exposure of under garments/ parts of the body adds to their beauty or what point exactly are they trying to score? This is because as loose as this brand of jeans is on the waist, it can be held up firmly with a belt. Belt, oh yes! The normal belt that you can find around easily. However, lots of ladies decry the use of belt. Tonia, a neighbour of mine, who I spoke to said she hates wearing belts. "I can't stand belts", she says. Another lady, Dianna, also said she does not like using belt whenever she is wearing a Low waist jeans, the reason, according to her is that, the fitting will not be there. She said she feels better without one. So what is she feeling better about? The fact that her under garment/ bare butt is most of the time exposed? It would not have been so bad however if the dislike for belt as expressed equalled the dislike for jumper tops on Low Waist Jeans. This is because as much as this kind of jeans hardly moves beyond the waist and tends to move lower when the wearer is in motion, not much harm would be done if the top is long, to at least the laps level. But this is not the case as most ladies you see on the low waist jeans usually combine it with a jumper top, which is why most of the time you see them pulling down the top. I visited the saloon recently and there were about six girls inside before I came in, they were all backing me, I didn't see their faces immediately, but I could tell the colours of their under garments. Believe me, for some, it was not their under garments I saw, I saw more than that. When I struck up a conversation with the hair dresser, she said: Ah, aunty na this type of jeans dey give fitting.

So ladies, what exactly is 'fitting' nudity? Now, if fitting does not mean nudity, then we may have to take a second look at the way we wear the Low Waist Jeans. This is because you can actually look good without compromising decency. Exposing under garments or parts of the body that should be concealed is not pleasing in anyway.