STUDIO VISIT:Hamid Ibrahim

Veiled

Why Art?



As a child, I used to draw a lot. I won drawing competitions when I was in Primary School. However it was when I got into Secondary School that it finally dawned on me that art was really what I wanted to do. I was tutored and guided by my art teacher then, Mr. Imo of blessed memory. He was a lecturer at the Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) at the time and was also an art instructor at my school.
Training
I gained admission into YABATECH to study Art. I also have a diploma to teach art. Every other knowledge I have of my craft was learnt on the job.
Medium
I use oil colours. I have done watercolours. I draw a lot but I do not touch acrylic.
Influences
Kolade Oshinowo, my lecturer at YABATECH, is one of my major influences. However, I am not too much into external influences. For me, the struggle in art is listening to your voice. The constant struggle to better yourself is also part of this. You keep moving and trying. You keep telling yourself ‘I can do better'. Influences will come and go but you must be focused.
Inspiration
Everything in life inspires me. I do landscape, waterscape, figures and abstract art. I am a rounded artist. My inspiration varies. I see art as very universal.
Best work so far
I have not gotten one yet. My love for my pieces is temporal. I may like it for a while, after that the feeling is gone. So I am on the search for the best work.
Least satisfying work
After a while, I get bored. All my past works are least satisfying. No art work is completely finished. It's a continuous process.
Career high point
Success is what you feel inside after your work is done. I believe every work, I do can be better.
Favourite artist living or dead
I respect Picasso a lot. Also Rembrandt. My Nigerian favourites are Kolade Oshinowo, Yusuf Grillo and Gani Odutokun.
Ambitions
To do a great painting. I also want my works to have widespread influences.
Source:234next

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On Danse Meets Dance

 The festival aims to catch those who don’t normally go to upscale Island venues

The Danse Meets Dance (DMD) Festival is an annual contemporary dance festival that originated in 2001.

It was first organised and run by the French Cultural Centre Lagos until 2004 when the centre closed. The Festival is now being handled by the French Cultural Centre Abuja, Alliance Francaise Lagos and Goethe Insitute Nigeria with technical support from Blackroots International. Additional support also comes from the French Embassy and CulturesFrance, the agency of the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Culture and Communications responsible for international cultural exchanges.
 
The festival aims to encourage professional dance in Nigeria and give Nigerian dancers exposure on the international scene. The festival features performances from local and foreign dance companies; and also workshops for professional and amateur dancers.
Over the years, DMD has successively served as a launch-pad onto the local and international scene for several indigenous dance companies, one of which is the popular Ijodee dance group helmed by award winning dancer, Dayo Liadi.
With the calibre of foreign and indigenous dance professionals that have featured at the festivals, it is a wonder that DMD has earned little or no public recognition so far. Its aim to encourage dance in Nigeria, however, has led to an increased awareness of contemporary dance within mostly art circles and the proliferation of dance companies in Nigeria. According to Gboyega Adetona, the creative director of the Festival, as many as 20 dance companies have risen in Lagos alone thanks to DMD.
For this year like in past years, efforts were made to get sponsorships, with little success. For a "festival", the event gets very few participants in the way of audience. The organisers are able boast of 2000 people at last year's grand performance show, which held on the last day of the festival. This year, the normally week-long event has been shortened to four days, due to this lack of corporate sponsorship and public participation.
For a country that can boast huge music and dance reality shows, mostly culled from foreign franchises, it is a wonder that an indigenously organised event such as this would have to suffer interest. In the United States, the TV show ‘So You Think You Can Dance' has been hailed for encouraging dance (especially contemporary dance) culture in that country. The show has helped to bring together dance practitioners across America that help to develop workshops aimed at serving those, kids and adults, interested in the dance profession.
For a country, that loves to emulate, one would not be surprised if a production company decides to import that franchise for local consumption sometime in the future. This would be sad indeed, as there is already a foundation to build on with Dance Meets Danse, if only someone would come forward and start building.
The 10th edition of the Danse Meets Dance festival takes places this year from the 1st to 4th December 2010 at the Arts Theatre University of Lagos, Akoka; and the French School, Victoria Island. It is free for all comers.
Source:234next

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Dance comes to the people

All for Dance... Mfon Umana, Sunday Umweni, Adetona Gboyega and Norbert Cazeilles

Professional dancers from Congo Brazzaville, Germany, Mozambique and Nigeria will perform at this year's edition of Danse Meets Dance which will run from December 1 to 4 in Lagos .

At a press conference to announce the event, Mfon Umana, Director of Communication and public relations officer, Alliance Francaise Lagos, said that the event aims at highlighting the creative and original choreographic work of professional Nigerian dance practitioners.
She also intimated the press of the highlights of the Dance festival which is in its tenth year. "As we mark a milestone this year Danse meets Dance 2010 will be bigger with the participation of 8 Nigerian companies. Furthermore the three winners of the 8th edition of The Danse L'Afrique Danse Festival an international biennial contemporary dance competition that took place in Bamako, (Mali) three weeks ago will be present to display their award winning [routines] on the stage of Danse meets Dance (DMD)."
On the choice of the University of Lagos and the French School as venues, DMD Festival Director Adetona Gboyega said, "We chose UNILAG because this year we are taking it closer to the audience. So that people who usually do not have the opportunity to go to the MUSON Centre to watch dance festivals will be able to do so this time around. UNILAG is open and they want us to do a lot with them so we will also feature a lot of creative arts students. At the same time, the university is close to Surulere, one of the areas we are not close to, so we chose there to be closer to the people.
The event is being organised by the Alliance Francais and the French Cultural Centre in partnership with the Goethe Instituite who is sponsoring through a German troupe coming to Nigeria. It's free and open to all".
Troupes that will perform at the four day event, which will feature dance performances and workshops, include: Studio Maho (Congo Brazzaville), Cie Horacio Macuacua (Mozambique), Qudus Onikeku (Nigeria) and Alajota (Nigeria).Others include Gintersdorfer/Klaben (Germany), Squazd 1(Nigeria), Creative Arts Student UNILAG (Nigeria), Lycee Francais Lagos (Nigeria), Ashiedu Dance Company (Nigeria) and Amulegbajo Company (Nigeria).
Danse meets Dance began in 2001 as an avenue to bring together Nigerian and international contemporary dance companies to share ideas and experiences and how to promote regional understanding and integration through dance. The festival also showcases Nigerian dance companies, dancers and choreographers through stage performances, workshopS and seminars.
Over the years, it has attracted over 500 professional and amateur dancers from all around the globe.
Source:234next

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Fela! bursts onto the London stage

 Fela and his queens on the London stage

The corridors of Olivier Hall of The National Theatre, South Bank, London was crowded on the evening of November 16, when I arrived just minutes short of the start of the musical, Fela!. It was the opening night of the critically acclaimed Broadway production, which had already bagged three Tony awards and was much talked about in international thespian circles.

It is not often that an African personality is celebrated and chosen as a subject for western theatre; therefore the excitement was palpable as this evening marked its next step: a debut in London's Theatreland - and the British media were out in their numbers to appraise this curious collaboration of American stagecraft and African music. 
Songs by Fela played softly from hidden speakers around the busy corridors of the hall, seducing us to a state of ecstatic anticipation. The songs interrupted frequently by recorded voice simulations of Fela urging that the motley audience take their seats as the show was set to begin. We finally made our way from the small talk, the bars and the sales stalls offering Fela merchandise and trickled to our seats.
The Olivier had transmuted into a world of colours, symbols and images. Grabbing attention high up on the right wing of the hall was a giant portrait of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Fela's mother. The stall terraces were draped with flags of various African countries. The stage background was a blown up image of Kalakuta Republic, while the foreground paid homage to many traditional deities: Oshun, Shango, Esu, Ogun and Yemoja.
Projected pages of newpapers proclaimed news like ‘Fela Raided in Ghana', ‘Let's legalise polygamy - Fela'; and the many scrolling, flashing and shifting stage accoutrements that were scattered above the stage ensured that one did not quite know where to look. The stage set was a tribute to excess - oddly fitting in depicting the life of a musical legend who was known to have been ruled by extreme passions.
Preceded by his beautifully decorated dancers, who taxed their waists and derrieres in seductive dances that left many in the crowd gasping at the audacity of their ample behinds, Sahr Ngaujah swaggered onstage and promptly took the thousand-strong audience down a headlong dive into the life of Abami Eda from the first strains of ‘Upside Down'.
Unknown Soldier
We watch with wistful appreciation his devotion to his mother, whom he praises as "the first (Nigerian) woman to drive a car... the first to visit China... The Teacher" and we mourn along with him in pin-drop silence after her death at the hands of ‘Unknown Soldier'. We accompany him when, evoking the spirit of his mother, he summons an Egungun who leads him by the hand to seek her in the world of the spirits. And along with him feel the reprimand of her pronouncement when he begs to abandon the homeland: "I refuse to give my permission for you to use what happened to me as an excuse to run away."
We are acquainted uncomfortably - considering the British audience - with his long-held scorn for those he calls Nigeria's "tea drinking guests, the ones who take our petroleum and people and leave us with gonorrhoea and Jesus." And together we are pallbearers who carry gifts of ‘Coffin for Head of State'.
When the musical seems to double back on itself, we accompany Fela on his musical education to grey, cold London and sympathise when he wallows in what might be termed a quarter life crisis. We all discover his identity in Black emancipated Los Angeles, learning at the feet of Sandra who is as much a political influence on him as Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver whose texts she plies him with. And we share his triumph when he declares, "Music is about change and I'm going to change the world."
Complemented by a 12-piece band - with London-based Afrobeat musician, Dele Dosimi, on the keyboard - and two lead singers who played the two major influences in Fela's life Melanie Marshall (Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti) with her steely soprano, and Paulette Ivory (Sandra Isadore) crooning in sultry alto, Ngaujah sweated his way through several saxophone build-ups, while exuding the megalomania and larger than life charisma of Fela. He played the audience expertly, we laughed when he wanted and danced when he ordered. He took us from raucous participation in the notorious pelvic thrusting clock dance to sad contemplation of the still-bitter state of affairs in the nation he tried so hard to change.
Shuffering and Shmilling
‘Water No Get Enemy', ‘Coffin for Head of State', ‘Expensive Shit', ‘Upside Down', ‘Shuffering and Shmiling', ‘Sorrow Tears and Blood', ‘Zombie', ‘Yellow Fever', led us down route after intriguing route in the life of the much missed icon. Finally, Ngaujah asked, "Who here has ever been to jail?" and surprisingly several hands shot up in the audience.
Two of the more insistent hands came from the first and fifth rows, and moments later, stage lighting revealed them to be no other than Fela's sons, Seun and Femi Kuti. Seated discreetly among the crowd with his older sister, Yeni, Femi had undoubtedly tried to evade recognition until the nostalgia of the recreated shrine ambience prompted him to abandon anonymity. Seun on the other hand had hardly been able to restrain himself from joining Ngaujah and the dancers onstage. His head bobbed, shoulders shook, and feet tapped in evident enjoyment of the music and the bird's eye view of the spectacular dancers gyrating before him in an alternation of perfect choreography and reckless abandon.
Employing a colourful array of costumes, expressions, dances, ideas, Fela! was spectacular in its drama. Bearing in mind its international audience, however, many of the songs were performed in English rather than the Pidgin English. The musical also played, as it were with the facts: Fela was no known Abiku, who had eschewed his mortality in anger at being given a foreign name. Yeni, was quick to defend these add-ons when NEXT caught up with her after the show, "It's a musical, they can't get all the facts right. You will not find me criticising it because it has ensured that almost 14 years after his death, Fela's legacy continues to live internationally."
After curtain call
The performance seemed to be packed too tight on a body too thin, getting lost in the hazy area between drama and musical. Nigerians may not have seen all of the Fela they know, but the parts of Fela seen fit to be depicted was played out in almost an overdose. "The story is flimsy and confused, there's a lack of narrative drive," complained Henry Hitchings of The London Evening Standard, and one could not agree more. One might therefore disagree with Femi Kuti's remark that "This show is for the international audience. It gives the average foreigner knowledge of Fela and what he stood for. We Nigerians are too critical; we want the Nigerian accent and fail to understand the intention of the producers."
Seun Kuti who was seeing the musical for the seventh time, said he found it enjoyable though less heightened than the Broadway shows. "Not in the message," he hastened to add, "but in the drama."
Watching Ngaujah alternate between abrasive confidence, soul and affected contempt for his "political enemies" was a thrill only slightly marred by his mispronunciation of Yoruba expressions. And one could not help but wonder, as he appeared in one elaborately embroidered Fela trademarked costume after the other, whether this job of playing Fela could not be better delivered by D'banj, whose new Mr Endowed mantra seems another of his similarities with the illustrious "one who carries death in his pouch".
Enquiring from Femi if when Fela! debuts in Nigeria as hoped, D'banj would be playing Fela, met with a bright eyed knowledge but a refusal to comment, and one can only wonder whether the Koko Master is not as we speak taking a crash course in playing the brass.
Fela! at London's National Theatre is an exhilarating testament to the achievement of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti while being at the same time exaggerated yet sketchy; toned down, as it were, to appeal to British sensibilities. One therefore hopes that when the musical visits Nigeria, the Abami Eda will be unleashed on his people in all his overwhelming glory.
Source:234next

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Macmillan literary night

 Crown Troupe of Africa performs at the event

Nigerian writers got the accolades they have rightly earned over the years at the eighth Macmillan Literary Night held on Thursday, November 18 at Agip Recital Hall, MUSON Centre, Lagos.


Octogenarian, Chinua Achebe; Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka; dramatist, Femi Osofisan; poet, Niyi Osundare and deceased writers, Amos Tutuola and Cyprian Ekwensi, amongst others, were lauded for their contributions to Nigerian literature.
The event themed ‘Penning Our March to the Golden Year: A Celebration of Nigerian Literature in the Last 50 Years', was attended by many lovers of the written word. The task of introducing some of them, especially the chair, Tunde Babawale, Director General, Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation, and the special guest of honour, Babatunde Raji Fashola, the Governor of Lagos State, fell on Nigeria's first female permanent secretary, Francesca Emmanuel. 
The vice chair of Macmillan's literary committee, who executed the task with a touch of class, apologised for the late commencement of the programme. She capped her excellent presentation by reading an excerpt from Peter Enahoro's ‘How to be a Nigerian'.
Worthy ambassadors
Her husband and chair, Macmillan Nigeria Publishers, Bode Emmanuel, welcomed guests thereafter. He noted that the night provided an opportunity to boost creativity, writing and reading. He said Nigerian literature is representative of a country on the move as "it constantly draws from the country's realities in the best tradition of protest art." Emanuel added that it was inevitable that writers would speak out against the excesses of the Nigerian society after a bloody civil war and ill managed oil boom.
The publisher described the emergence of first generation writers including Achebe, Soyinka, Ekwensi, J.P. Clark and others as a "landmark" because they succeeded in giving "African literature focus and direction, and propagated African values to the outside world." He noted that rather than abating, issues that first generation writers condemned in their works multiplied, thus leading to the taking up the gauntlet by second generation writers. Labo Yari, Femi Osofisan, Abubakar Gimba, Festus Iyayi and Odia Ofeimun, Emanuel said, have at various times condemned corruption and other ills in the society. He added that contemporary writers including Ben Okri and Helon Habila have toed the same path.
Emmanuel further noted that apart from the Civil War being the cause of poet Christopher Okigbo's death and the imprisonment of Soyinka, it has been a major issue to Nigerian writers, providing a creative outlet for many of them. Elechi Amadi's ‘Sunset in Biafra'; Soyinka's ‘The Man Died'; Chukwuemeka Ike's ‘Sunset at Dawn'; Ken Saro-Wiwa's ‘Soza Boy' and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's ‘Half of a Yellow Sun', he noted, are examples of the country's rich civil war literature.
The publisher however expressed happiness that in spite of ills afflicting Nigeria and its literature, the writers have achieved a lot on the international scene. He mentioned the translations Achebe's ‘Things Fall Apart' has undergone and Soyinka's Nobel Prize for Literature as examples. He further praised writers for succeeding in exporting our culture to other parts of the world. "Nigeria stands tall in international politics because of the arts and writers... Nigeria stands redeemed through the works of writers," he said. Emanuel also restated Macmillan's dedication to quality publishing.
Laudable project
Emcee, poet and polemicist, Odia Ofeimun, keyed in to Emmanuel's last statement by noting that the company did something he had always wanted this year: releasing four new books. ‘A Childhood Journey' by Mary Oto Lijadu; J.C. Agunwamba's ‘The Poacher's Daughter'; ‘Too Close to the Rocks' by Jide Oguntoye and Onyechi Mbamali's ‘Your Man Abednego'.
Fashola, who was represented by Babajide Sanwo-0lu, the Commissioner for Establishment and Training, commiserated with Macmillan on the demise of educationist Aliu Babatunde Fafunwa, vice chair, board of the company. He disclosed that he was impressed by the company's effort to sustain and project Nigerian literature through the literary night initiated. "This is a laudable effort to promote reading," he noted. The Governor reiterated the importance of education to development and urged people to buy and read at least a book a month.
Presentations
Rather than have the chair's remarks, Ofeimun tweaked the schedule to take the presentations, which involved four major Nollywood artists reading excerpts from some works. Norbert Young, Ihria Enakimio, Tina Mba and Ireti Doyle all read while the Crown Troupe of Africa performed. The group's opening glee was a refreshing piece different from their usual offering. It earned them generous applause from the audience. Their second and last presentation, a dance drama titled ‘Our Story' and Wole Soyinka's ‘I Love This Lagos' were also appreciated.
The quartet of Young, Enakimio, Mba and Doyle, also did a commendable job, adopting the mannerisms of their characters. Young perfectly adopted the accent of a Yoruba man while reading Amos Tutuola's ‘The Palmwine Drinkard' while Enakimio did same with Frank Aig-Imoukhuede's pidgin poem, ‘One Man, One Wife'. The two ladies were not exempted in convincingly portraying their characters. Folk group, Nefertiti, accompanied the artists on some excerpts. The quartet did Ken Saro-Wiwa's lengthy, risqué and irreverent pidgin poem, ‘Dis Nigeria Sef' together to end the session.
Critical tool
It was only then that Babawale gave his speech. The CBAAC boss said he was honoured to have been asked to chair the event and described it as a "night of fulfilment, education and sober reflection on the state of our country." He commended Macmillan for doing a great job over the years and reiterated the place of the arts in the society. Babawale said one of the greatest mistakes Nigeria has made in the last two decades is giving preference to science and technology to the detriment of the arts. "Literature provides a critical tool with which you can analyse the society and you need a critical mind to develop. Government must be told in clear terms that we must do everything to support Literature," he said while pledging CBAAC's continuous support to Macmillan.
Babawale, who pulled no punches despite being in the employ of government, also condemned the country's decaying infrastructure. "Ladies and gentlemen, must this continue? No. Go home and start reading."
Source:234nex

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Hollywood publicist's killer used hollow-point bullet, report says

Ronni Chasen, 64, died from gunshots fired into her Mercedes-Benz.
Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen's killer fired at least four shots into her car, including at least one hollow-point bullet, in last week's Beverly Hills attack, according to a leaked coroner's report.
Although the three-page report has not been made public, Los Angeles County coroner spokesman Brian Elias confirmed to CNN that a document shown in a local newscast appeared to be authentic.
The document was written by investigators on the first day of the investigation to help the doctor who would perform the autopsy the next day, Elias said. The full autopsy report is expected to be released next week, he said.
Chasen, 64, died from gunshots fired into her Mercedes-Benz as she turned off Sunset Boulevard on her way home from a star-studded premiere celebration for the movie "Burlesque" in the early morning of November 16.
The mysterious murder in a posh Beverly Hills neighborhood not only stunned her friends, but also sent fear through the exclusive community.
"One bullet was recovered from her back while at the hospital and is possibly from a 9 mm hollow point," according to the document shown on Los Angeles television station KTTV.
Hollow-point bullets are controversial because the slug is designed to expand after it enters a body, causing greater damage to tissue than a solid bullet.
The report included details previously disclosed by police, including the belief Chasen was shot while she was stopped at a red light at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Whittier Drive. "An unknown vehicle pulled up and someone fired approximately four rounds into her vehicle," it said.
"After being struck by gunfire ... she then made a left turn and drove for approximately a quarter mile before she crashed her car into a pole," the report said.
Chasen was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai hospital 45 minutes after the shooting, the report said.
Details about how many shots hit Chasen and where they entered will not be known until the autopsy report is released, likely next week, Elias said.
The initial examination, apparently done at the hospital soon after Chasen's death, revealed three gunshot wounds to her chest area, the report said.
At least three other wounds were found on her right shoulder and upper back, the report said. But it was not indicated if those were where the bullets might have exited the body.
The report also confirmed that investigators found no shell casings at the scene and only the passenger side window and passenger seat were damaged by the gunfire.
The lack of official information about the investigation has spurred speculation by residents and reporters about the killing.
Beverly Hills Police Chief David Snowden asked journalists a week ago to keep "erroneous information, theories or speculation" out of their stories. The chief assured residents that it was "a rare, isolated incident and that the Beverly Hills community remains one of the safest in the nation."
There is no prevailing theory on whether the attack was road rage or a planned hit, a police official said. No motive or suspects have been identified, he said.
Beverly Hills detectives scanned Chasen's computers and phone logs for leads and went door to door for video clues from residential security cameras, a police spokesman said.
Chasen had been on the red carpet at Grauman's Chinese Theatre just hours earlier, walking with songwriter Diane Warren as she and "Burlesque" star Cher were interviewed about the music in the film.
Warren, who contributed the song "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" to the movie's soundtrack, said Chasen also went with her to the after-party at Hollywood's W Hotel.
Warren, who wrote Toni Braxton's tearful ballad "Un-Break My Heart," said she was "devastated beyond belief."
"This was a nice woman," Warren said. "Everybody loved Ronni. She was the best at what she did."

Chasen's work for three decades earned her a reputation as a publicist who could help create Oscar buzz for clients, which many times ended with Academy Awards.

 Source: cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/celebrit



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Proposed dress code for NYC cabbies asks less of drivers

 New York's famous (infamous?) taxi drivers may get a new dress code in 2011 that's shorter in form than the current version but broader in intent.

As it's written now, section 4-15 (b) of the Taxicab Drivers Rules manual (PDF) states that drivers face a $25 fine for failing to be "clean and neat in dress and person." In terms of specifics, that means a driver may not wear underwear, tank tops, tube tops, body shirts, swimwear, bathing trunks or cut-off shorts as outer clothing.
A proposed amendment would replace the list of prohibited apparel (PDF) with a more general requirement: that a driver "present a professional appearance."
 
The Taxi and Limousine Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed rules December 16. In the meantime, the agency is accepting comments through the NYC Rules website until December 6.
"The TLC believes that a general requirement better states its concerns and that a detailed list is outmoded and impractical," the city agency said in a public notice on its website. "The TLC believes that the public is entitled to drivers who present a neat and professional appearance."
TLC Chairman David Yassky told the New York Times that the change, which is expected to be approved at the December hearing, is part of an effort to simplify the 62-page rulebook.
The executive director of drivers' advocacy group told the Times said she was shocked to hear that a driver could be fined for his or her sartorial choices.
“What was it about? Somebody wore shorts?” asked Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. “I would be concerned if the idea of professional attire is left to the naked eye to decide.”
The new rule is bundled with a seemingly unrelated proposal that eliminates the need for drivers to inform passengers at the start of the trip that they must pay for any tolls, under the basis that "the riding public is aware, generally, that passengers are responsible for tolls."
Source:cnn.com/2010/11/26/proposed-dress-code
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'Sophisticated' border tunnel leads to seizure of tons of pot

 Extensive drug tunnel uncovered in CA
The discovery of a "sophisticated" tunnel between a Mexican eat-in kitchen and two Southern California warehouses led authorities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to arrest at least nine suspects and seize between 20 and 30 tons of marijuana.
The Thanksgiving Day find followed an eight-month investigation and came about three weeks after authorities discovered a similar drug tunnel in another warehouse in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego.
Between the two incidents, agents in the United States and Mexico seized roughly the equivalent of one marijuana cigarette for each of California's nearly 37 million residents, Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Ralph Partridge said Friday. 
"This is obviously not a Mom and Pop operation," Miguel Unzueta, a San Diego-based agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Friday. "This is a major, significant drug cartel working."
Unzueta described the nearly half-mile-long and, in spots, 90-foot-deep passageway as "very sophisticated," even more so than the one found earlier this month.
Its southern entry was in the kitchen of a stucco Tijuana, Mexico, home, which had a garage attached big enough for tractor-trailer trucks. After removing a 2-foot by 4-foot piece of flooring in that house, smugglers could head 80 feet down a cinder-block-lined stretch into the tunnel.
The passageway had lighting, ventilation, wood and cinder-block supports, wood floors and rail carts, U.S. law enforcement agents said. The tunnel split to lead into two separate warehouses in San Diego.
"Having been in several of these tunnels, this is one of the most sophisticated ... I've ever seen," Partridge said. "This is a tunnel where a lot of drugs were being pushed through."
The discovery came after San Diego Tunnel Task Force agents, on Thursday morning, spotted a tractor-trailer arriving at one of the warehouses, said Unzueta. After getting its load, the truck headed to a border patrol checkpoint in Temecula, California, about 60 miles north of San Diego.
There, authorities who had been tracking the shipment found the truck filled "top to bottom, front to back" with 27,000 600-pound packages of marijuana, Unzueta said.
Authorities initially could not get through the tunnel from the California side because it was blocked by huge packages of marijuana. Much of the drug was in a 10- by 20-foot room about 60 feet below the surface. U.S. agents and Mexican military personnel formed a human chain to lug out what amounted to 3 to 4 tons of marijuana, according to Unzueta.
In addition, U.S. law enforcement agencies tipped Mexican authorities about a ranch on that side of the border, where 3 to 4 more tons of the drug was captured.
Unzueta estimated that all the marijuana seized Thursday could have sold wholesale for $17 million to $20 million or -- as Partridge estimated -- been equal to 16 million to 17 million individual 1-gram joints.
The driver of the tractor-trailer truck was arrested and, if convicted on federal drug smuggling charges, could face between 10 years to life in prison, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Alana Robinson.
The driver of a box truck who accompanied the tractor-trailer to the San Diego warehouse also was arrested, Unzueta said. Although that truck didn't carry any drugs, the residence it went to had $13,500 in cash. Both trucks' drivers are U.S. citizens and are now in federal custody.
Mexican authorities have arrested at least another seven people, Unzueta said.
Earlier this month, agents made several arrests after seizing about 30 tons of marijuana related to the other San Diego tunnel discovery. John Morton, the head of the U.S. immigration and customs agency, said authorities "caught them in the act." And in October, Mexican authorities seized 105 tons of marijuana in Tijuana.
Law enforcement agents on both sides of the border have found at least 75 cross-border tunnels in the past four years, most of them in California and Arizona, according to Unzueta.

"Internal drug traffickers are using transborder tunnels to import tons of marijuana into the United States," Robinson said. "Clearly, these transborder tunnels pose a significant threat to our national security as well."

Source:cnn.com/2010/CRIME/11/26/californi

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Police: Vermont man killed in gun prank

Nicholas Bell, 23, was charged with manslaughter after the incident Thursday, Manchester police said.
A 24-year-old Vermont man was fatally shot by a friend who used a gun in a prank, police said.

The alleged shooter apparently tried to prank his sleeping friend by waking him up with the loud sound of an air rifle, police said.
However, police said, the man mistakenly used a real rifle in the prank.
Nicholas Bell, 23, was charged with manslaughter after the incident Thursday, Manchester police said.
"The accused fired the weapon, which was a loaded .22 cal rifle hitting the [victim] in the chest," a police statement said. "The victim died at the scene."
The victim was identified as 24-year-old Jeffrey Charbonneau.
Both men were guests at the Manchester home where the shooting occurred, police said.
Bell was jailed and bail was set at $250,000
Source:cnn.com/2010/CRIME/11/26/vermont Read more...

Part of building collapses on Salvation Army store in Colorado

 Salvation Army store collapse

A loft office collapsed at a Colorado Salvation Army thrift store, sending debris onto people below and launching a frantic search for someone who may have been missing, authorities said Friday.
The second-story loft collapsed around 3 p.m., when 22 people were in the thrift store and warehouse complex in Grand Junction, fire department spokesman Mike Page told CNN.
Authorities initially believed one person may have been missing, but later learned that everybody had made it out of the building.
The search took several hours because of the large quantity of rubble that was being removed by hand, Page said. Police dogs were assisting with the search.
Rescuers used thermal imaging at the facility on Ute Avenue, Page said. Teams drilled a hole into the wall on the opposite side of the building to continue the search operation.
Michele Mahoney, who works at a nearby business, said she heard a loud noise around 3:15 p.m. and came outside to discover a chaotic scene.
Dan Wilson of the Salvation Army said staff at the store assisted after the collapse.

"I am proud of our employees and how they responded," he said. "They helped a couple customers and got everybody out of the building in a safe and orderly manner." 

Source:cnn.com/2010/US/11/27/colorado

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