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Mugabe’s wayward sons living large on $40 000 a month

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Share this story They live in luxury apartments costing $6 000 a month, wear designer labels , drink champagne worth $500 per bottle, cruise around Johannesburg in chauffeur-driven limousines, and African Independent can exclusively reveal that their combined pocket money exceeds $40 000 every month. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe ’s sons, Robert Jnr (24) and Bellarmine Chatunga (20), are living in the lap of luxury. Impeccable sources said each boy receives more than $20 000 in pocket money every month, in addition to the rentals and living expenses which are footed in Zimbabwe. Interestingly, Mugabe revealed in 2015 that the government paid him a monthly salary of $12 000. H is wife Grace said Mugabe is the poorest president in the world.  The Mugabe family ’s only known private business, a dairy located 35 kilometres north of Harare, is a perennial loss-maker. Chatunga posted a video on YouTube last week showing him smoking expensive cigars and sipping on pricey champagne...

Trapped by a search for freedom, the life of an Alabama refugee

Just a couple of miles from the Mexican border, where approximately 200, 000 immigrants illegally cross every year, 14-year-old Guatemalan Byron Raxcaco came face-to-face with reality of life on this nearly 2,000 mile border. A local drug lord demanded that Raxcaco and his chaperone pay $800 for safe passage across the border, where criminal gangs ferry humans and drugs across daily, and where police presence is almost non-existent, he said in an interview with AL.com. Poor and desperate to reach the U.S., Raxcaco was detained in a hotel in the Mexican region of Senora for a day until his aunt in Semmes, Alabama, gathered the money for the drug lord. After paying up, Raxcaco was released and free to start a new life in the United States.  He approached a border patrol post , told them he was an unaccompanied minor and asked for political asylum. In the four years since crossing the border, he has moved in with his aunt, enrolled in school, learned English, and got himself a girlfri...

Jim Bakker prepares Missouri town for Eclipse fallout

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As President Donald Trump promised to unleash 'fire and fury' on North Korea,  a slightly-built, bearded TV evangelist bragged of his recent visit to the White House and warned of an up-coming ' nuclear winter .' Jim Bakker's studio audience whooped and cheered – before reaching deep into their pockets to buy 'Staying Alive' food - buckets full of freeze- dried products apparently capable of sustaining survivors through the Apocalypse. The charismatic pastor then made an impassioned plea for money to keep his ministry afloat – suggesting a year's supply of pancakes with a 30- year shelf life for an apparent bargain $550 or four cheaply published books for $40 to tide readers over through Armageddon. sell food buckets full of freeze- dried products , claiming the meals will keep followers alive after the Apocalypse" class="blkBorder img-share" /> Jim Bakker (pictured with wife Lori) uses his platform as a televangelist to sell f...

Another Turning Point For Mission Valley

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There was a time, and it wasn’t long ago, when Mission Valley was farmland. Black and white photos from the 1960s show rows of turnip plants and herds of grazing dairy cows owned by farmers. “I remember the stories of how they would take the cows under the freeway after they built Interstate 8, or 80 back in those days,” said Rob Hutsel, a fourth- generation San Diegan . “The deal with the landowner was he still had to get his cows to the river. And so they left a tunnel under it so they could take their cows down to the river to get their water... I always wonder whatever happened to the tunnel.” The completion of the I-8 freeway around 1960 was the beginning of the end of an era in valley. The Mission Valley mall was built, and the valley became a suburban shopping destination . Now, another shape shift is on the horizon. Hutsel is president of the San Diego River Park Foundation and a member of the city’s Mission Valley Planning Group . He sees opportunity in Mission Valley . “...