Boko Haram Attack Kills Hundreds

Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau claimed a massive attack on the northeast Nigerian town of Baga and threatened Niger, Chad and Cameroon in a new video published online on Tuesday evening.

The message came as Nigeria and its neighbours met in Niger’s capital, Niamey, to discuss a regional response to the threat and Chadian troops headed to Cameroon to help repel repeated Boko Haram attacks. “Heavy clashes” between Islamist fighters and Cameroon soldiers were reported in the far northern border village of Bonderi on Tuesday night.

Hundreds of people, if not more, are feared to have been killed in the attack on Baga, a fishing town on the shores of Lake Chad, in what could be the militants’ worst in their six-year rebellion. The rebels burnt large parts of the town to the ground and razed at least 16 surrounding settlements, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes, many of them into Chad and Niger.

“We killed the people of Baga. We indeed killed them, as our Lord instructed us in His Book,” Shekau said in the 35-minute message, which was posted on the video-sharing website YouTube. The militant leader was shown speaking in front of four white pick-up trucks, with eight masked and heavily armed men. But there was no indication of when or where the video was shot.

Survivors of the Baga attack, which also saw Boko Haram fighters capture a military base used by Nigerian, Nigerien and Chadian troops, have described how bodies still littered the streets. Shekau dismissed the extent of the slaughter, saying: “We will not stop. This is not much. You’ll see.”

Representatives from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon have been meeting to seek a regional response to the threat from Boko Haram because of increasing fears of cross-border raids. Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama has also suggested a new force, possibly under the auspices of the African Union, to crush the group.

But in the video, Shekau dismisses the threat and shows off a huge arsenal of weapons, apparently from the military base, and said Boko Haram would take on all-comers. “The kings of Africa, you are late. I challenge you to attack me even now. I’m ready,” he said.

Most Expensive Apartment In NYC

 

A buyer­, whose identity is under wraps, has set a new record of the most expensive single-family home purchase in New York City. The duplex penthouse on the 89th and 90th floor of the One57 tower on has closed for $100,471,452 to be precise.

Beijing Highest In Billion-Dollar Startups

While it’s undeniable that a good bulk of billion-dollar startups come out of Silicon Valley, it seems that the majority of these billion-dollar valuations actually come from cities elsewhere. According to recent data presented on data visualization platform Silk.co., of the 156 Internet and software startups that have met this billion-dollar bar, 63 percent come from cities outside of the Valley. Overall, San Francisco, CA and Beijing, China were found to be the top cities with the highest concentration of these billion-dollar companies.

The data was analyzed by the London, UK-based Atomico, a growth-stage, global venture firm, and looked at the overall state of billion-dollar startup valuations. While their data does indeed back up this notion that the Bay-area is prime spot for technology companies (with San Francisco leading the billion-dollar company count at 29 startups; 57 total in the overall Silicon Valley-area), they also show that opportunities lay outside that area – even outside the United States (with Beijing coming in at second with 17 billion-dollar companies; 20 total in the overall area in and around Beijing). On a per-continent basis, North America leads with 88 companies, followed by Asia with 43, and then Europe with 25.

To compile the Silk report, Atomico looked at data on billion-dollar valuations between 2003 and 2014. On average, they discovered that an average of 14 companies have reached the much-desired billion-dollar valuation each year in the last decade. They also found that the average time it took for these companies to reach the billion-dollar mark was six years from their initial founding; however, they also found there’s a increasing trend towards companies reaching this bar at a much faster pace than previously – with 32 companies in their data having surpassed the billion-dollar mark within three years of being founded. Looking at the data even closer, we find that 70 percent of the companies (110 out of 156) didn’t reach that mark until after the start of 2013.

Further, the data looks into the sectors represented by these startups and whether their offerings were enterprise- or consumer-facing. Whereas enterprise and consumer products share a pretty equal split among North American billion-dollar companies, the dynamic is different in Asia, where 93 percent of their billion-dollar companies had consumer products. Enterprise apps overall led in terms of sectors producing the most billion-dollar companies – with 28 companies offering some kind of enterprise product.

The report suggests that Silicon Valley isn’t the only place in the world where tech startups can find success. From international startup hubs like Stockholm, Sweden (which has seen 5 companies reach the billion-dollar mark) to U.S. cities like Austin, TX (which has had 3 companies in the billion-dollar club), the opportunity to become one of these billion-dollar unicorns can happen literally anywhere in the world. For an in-depth look at the data, visit the interactive Silk report or head directly to Atomico’s summary of the data.

Malcolm Warner Speaks On Bill Cosby

Warner commented on the slew of allegations plaguing his former TV father Bill Cosby. “He’s one of my mentors, and he’s been very influential and played a big role in my life as a friend and mentor,” Warner tells Billboard. “Just as it’s painful to hear any woman talk about sexual assault, whether true or not, it’s just as painful to watch my friend and mentor go through this.

“I can’t really speak on any of the allegations because obviously, I was not there. The Bill Cosby I know has been great to me and great for a lot of people. What he’s done for comedy and television has been legendary and history-making. What he’s done for the black community and education has been invaluable. That’s the Bill Cosby I know. I can’t speak on the other stuff.”

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Katy Perry And J.J. Watts Cover ESPN Magazine Photos

Well! I guess Katy Perry and J.J. Watts have something more to celebrate for. The have been featured on the cover of ESPN Magazine with some hot photos listed inside. Take a look at whats happening below.

 Katy Perry learned she’d be photo-
sessioning with Texans defensive end J.J. Watt, “I went straight to Google,” she says. What she saw? Watt’s bloody visage as he battled the Seahawks in 2013. “I’ve been showing it to my friends, saying, ‘Check out this guy. I’m gonna be shootin’ with this guy.’”

“My mom has never been a big fan of that photo,” admits Watt, sitting next to Perry on set. “I try not to bleed anymore.”

“That picture was real … interesting,” Perry says. “I mean, he looks so nice now in person! I don’t even recognize him.”

Everyone in Texas does, though, swarming the 25-year-old out of tiny Pewaukee, Wisconsin, every time he tries to check out the Friday night lights. It’s fame he has earned: Watt’s freaktastic 2014 season included 20∏ sacks (one for a safety), five fumble recoveries and five touchdowns. The offseason has been pretty productive too: “I was with Justin Timberlake, and he taught me an end zone dance,” Watt says. “I said, ‘Hey, you’re obviously a very good dancer. Could you design me a touchdown dance so I don’t look like a fool?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, no problem.’ So I need to get back in the end zone so I can give Justin his tribute.”

 Perry, 30, wasn’t exactly slacking in 2014 either, touring her 2-hour, 10-minute show from May to December and grossing more than $108 million doing so. She was 
in The Grove at Ole Miss before her first football game in October, picking the Rebels against the Crimson Tide on College GameDay, then stormed the field without her security detail and zestfully ended the night at an Oxford watering hole. “Journey was playing ‘Don’t Stop Believing,’ and I just thought, ‘Why not be the quintessential college girl and jump off the bar?’” So she did, captured in the act on video.

“Was it fun?” Watt asks.

“Yeah, it was everything I dreamed of,” she says. “I only need to do it once, though. That was the one time on the tour that I really had a couple of beers. And the next day I was like [groan] …”

JT concerts and game-day tailgating are hardly the norm for these two Icons of the Establishment, but that’s the point: Their industrial-strength charismatic superpowers are capable of crossing over. It’s also why Perry and Watt, who rule in (or on) their respective fields, quickly find common ground about the kind of drive and work ethic that brought them success.

Watt, for one, knew so early that he wanted to play football for the Badgers that he confided his dream to his fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Keefe. (They still keep in touch.) And he forged his Dream Big, Work Hard mantra in high school while training with his coach, Brad Arnett. “I was just this skinny sophomore quarterback, about 6-2, maybe 190. He had a gym he’d opened up, and I said, ‘Listen, I wanna be great.’”

Top 5 Hottest Emma Stone Photos

They say that she is Gods gift to earth, so The Wrap-Up Magazine has released the top 5 hottest photos of the beauty Emma Stone. Emily Jean "Emma" Stone is an American actress. She made her feature film debut in Superbad.

 She has co-starred in The House Bunny, Zombieland, and Kieran and Michelle Mulroney's Paper Man. Emma Stone was born in Scottsdale, Arizona, to Krista (Yeager), a homemaker, and Jeffrey Stone, a contracting company founder and CEO.

 Emma Stone and Alan Cumming attend “Queen Of The Night” in New York City. Emma Stone and her Cabaret co-star Alan Cumming get silly with a fake jungle cat while attending a performance of Queen Of The Night. Emma Stone is an American actress who has a net worth of $8 million.

 When Emma Stone talks about the kind of actor that she'd like to be, the conversation inevitably turns to comedy. Since breaking out opposite Jonah Hill and Michael Cera in 2007's hit teen comedy "Superbad," Emma Stone hasn't had a bad year.

Nas Featured In GQ Magazine

GQ: Last year was the twentieth anniversary of Illmatic. Do you recognize that person who made that record now?

Nas: Sure—he was a vivacious young man full of a lot of great ideas, excited and ready.