Beyonce features author Chimamanda Adichie in her new album

Queen Bey surprised her fans by secretly dropping a new album on iTunes last night December 12th. The self titled album is Beyonce's 5th solo album and features 31 tracks, 14 of which are new songs.
In the new album, Beyonce collaborated with Jay Z, Drake, Justin Timberlake, Kelly Rowland....and featured our very Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on a track titled Flawless. Beyonce put a portion of the award winning author's speech about feminism and roles women play in the society in the song. Pop meets Literature! Amazing stuff.
Meanwhile Beyonce has filmed 17 new music videos, one of which she released on Facebook last night. You have to be really big to release an album without any promos or prior warning to fans.

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Idris Elba nominated for Golden Globes Awards

Idris Elba received a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination for his roles as Mandela in the movie; Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom', while Chiwetel Ejiofor got his Best Actor nomination for his role as Solomon Northup in the movie, 12 Years A Slave. Chiwetel also got a SAG Awards nomination.
The two actors are up against, Tom Hanks - Captain Phillips, Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club and Robert Redford for All is Lost.

Queen Latifah COVERS Good Housekeeping MAGAZINE

Latifah opened up to Good Housekeeping about how she has learned to be happy with herself, in all aspects of life.
The actress spoke honestly about being a bigger woman amongst the tiny starlets of Hollywood. She told the magazine, "…for a lot of the things I've wanted to do in life, I haven't looked typical, I was not born a size 2. I'm not skinny, period." Still, she learned early on to embrace her beauty and differences. "When I was around 18, I looked in the mirror and said, 'You're either going to love yourself or hate yourself.' And I decided to love myself. That changed a lot of things," she recalled.
Sadly, body image hasn't been the only hurdle Latifah has had to clear. Just as her career took off, her brother was killed in a motorcycle accident. A devout Baptist, Latifah had a hard time accepting the loss. "My life was rocked to the core. And I felt guilty, because I was angry at God," she explained.
Years later, she was the victim of a carjacking in which her friend was nearly killed. The two incidents sent Latifah over the edge and lead her to drinking as a coping mechanism. She confessed, "Drinking a bunch of alcohol, numbing myself. Every day I would be faded, like a painting that's just not vibrant, whose edges are dull, I wasn't living my full life."
Therapy helped the actress to see past her struggles and handle other deep–rooted issues, including the sexual abuse she faced as a child.
Now, Latifah is a brighter and happier person. She credits her faith in God for bringing her through darker days and making her realize that, as she put it, "Nobody is perfect."

Oprah Winfrey :'If I had kids, they would hate me'

Oprah Winfrey has no regrets, commentating it would have been difficult making time for a family amid her busy career. 'If I had kids, my kids would hate me,' she tells The Hollywood Reporter in its new issue. 'They would have ended up on the equivalent of the Oprah show talking about me; because something [in my life] would have had to suffer and it would've probably been them.'
Oprah, who grew up in poverty in rural Mississipi, says her attitude about children is in stark contrast to her best friend Gayle King who is a mother of two.
'Gayle [now a mother of two] was the kind of kid who, in seventh grade Home Ec class, was writing down her name and the names of her children,' she says. 'While she was having those kind of daydreams, I was having daydreams about how I could be Martin Luther King.'
Celebrating her Sherry Lansing Leadership Award with a new interview, the 59-year-old businesswoman and talk-show host candidly discusses the struggles launching her TV network OWN, her financial success.

Pope Francis named TIME's Person of the Year 2013

After only nine months as the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has been named TIME magazine Person of the Year 2013. TIME said the former Argentinian Cardinal has become the 'new voice of conscience and is the person who had the greatest impact on the world in 2013.

"Rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly - young and old, faithful and cynical - as Pope Francis," editors at Time Magazine said. 

The runner-up to the Pope is the National Security Agency whistle blower, Edward Snowden.

Pics:Nelson Mandela's body lying in state in Pretoria

The body of late anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela this morning arrived at South African government Union Building, Pretoria, where it will lie in state for three days.

The public, invited heads of states and international guests will be able to view his body from today till Friday. He will be buried in his home village of Qunu in Eastern Cape province on Sunday Dec. 15th.

 

FG cancels resumption ultimatum, pays N200b requested by ASUU

With the apparent stance of the Academic Staff Union of Universities on non resumption until the agreement between them and the Federal government has been honored, the Federal Government in a re-conciliatory move removed the ultimatum earlier placed on lecturers to resume otherwise their appointments would be terminated. FG has also provided proof of disbursement of N200billion to the educational trust account which was one of the criteria earlier given by lecturers for resumption.

Addressing newsmen yesterday, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, showed a letter with reference number GVD/DGO/GEN/MP/05/151 which was addressed to the Auditor-General of the Federation and titled: “Confirmation of the Execution of your Mandate for the Credit of Account No…Revitalization of Universities Infrastructure Account.”
The letter stated: “I write to confirm the execution of the following mandates by the Central Bank of Nigeria for funding of the above mentioned account as follows:
Mandate FD/LP2013/40/1/30/DF – 129,300,000,000.00
Mandate FD/F124/Vol XII/120/DF – 20,700,000,000.00
Mandate FD/LP2013/40/1/DF – 50,000,000,000.0
“I wish to further confirm that the available balance in the aforementioned account is N200,000,000,000.00 (Two Hundred Billion Naira Only).
“Please, accept the assurances of my best regards.”

As regards cancellation of the ultimatum, Doyin Okupe said about 90% of the lecturers had resumed nationwide so the talk of deadline resumption has dropped.