Welcome to Olamama's blog!!!: February 2019

Thursday 28 February 2019

Couple proudly show off their giant cabbage which is the same size as a person

Rosemary Norwood and her husband Sean Cadman have spent the last nine months lovingly taking care of a cabbage growing at the bottom of their garden. And all their hard work has paid off, as they have managed to produce a giant cabbage which is now the same size as a person.
The semi-retired couple have been growing vegetables for years but said this is the biggest they've ever had.

Craig Coley, 71, will be compensated with $21 million after he was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole for a crime he didn't commit. Coley spent 39 years in prison after Rhonda Wicht and her 4-year-old son, Donald were found murdered on November 11, 1978. Donald had been smothered, Wicht had been strangled with a macrame cord and it appeared someone had staged the scene to look like a burglary. Wicht, 24, had also been raped.

An illegal gold mine in Indonesia has collapsed and buried dozens of people who are "screaming for help," according to a disaster management official at the mine, where three people were confirmed dead. At least two of the confirmed victims were killed by falling rocks, disaster management agency official Abdul Muin Paputungan told CNN.

Nearly 200 passengers who were stuck on an Amtrak train for over 40 hours in heavy snow have finally made it to a station. The Los Angeles-bound service left Seattle on Sunday morning but was stuck in Oakridge, Oregon, from 6.20pm local time (GMT-8), when it hit a tree.
According to an Amtrak spokeswoman, snow and debris on the line stopped the train in its tracks, with the extreme weather also making alternative transport for passengers impossible.
Finally, at around 7.50am local time on 26 February, a Union Pacific locomotive arrived to tow the train back towards Eugene, after crews spent all night clearing the line.
Volunteers from the Red Cross greeted the weary passengers when they finally disembarked on Tuesday morning at a train depot in Eugene, Oregon.

Fang Fenghui: China's ex-top general jailed for life

A former high-ranking Chinese general has been sentenced to life in jail for corruption, state media reports. Fang Fenghui, ex-chief of joint staff of the People's Liberation Army, was found guilty of bribery and having huge wealth that he had been unable to account for, according to Xinhua.
The 67-year-old accompanied President Xi Jinping in his first meeting with US President Donald Trump in 2017.

Hijacking foiled on Bangladesh-Dubai flight, 24-year-old suspect killed

A flight bound for Dubai from Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, made an emergency landing on Sunday in Chittagong, Bangladesh, after a man attempted to hijack the plane. The suspect identified as Mahmud Polash Ahmed, a 24-year-old Bangladeshi passenger from a village near the capital had been previously arrested in a kidnapping case.

'Firefall' in Yosemite National Park stuns visitors. The rare phenomenon happens when light hits a waterfall tumbling down El Capitan. The intensity of the brief annual display in February depends on the volume of water and the cloud cover.

"I want to inspire British girls not to make the same mistakes" Jihadi bride, Shamima Begum says she's truly sorry and begs to be allowed into the UK

Shamima Begum, the British schoolgirl who left home at 15 in 2015 and fled to Syria to join ISIS, has begged for forgiveness in a recent interview and asked to be allowed to return to Britain so she can inspire girls like her not to make the same mistake she made.
Shamima, now 19, gave birth to her third child, a boy, last weekend while her husband, an Islamic fighter, is in jail. Cradling her 1 week old son, Shamima invited her interviewer into her tent. She now has a tent due to her recent fame.

Actor, Jussie Smollett's character on Empire will be removed from the final two episodes of this season following his arrest on charges that he staged a racist, anti-gay attack on himself last month in downtown Chicago.
Producers of the Fox TV show made the announcement today barely 24-hours after Smollett turned himself in to police, appeared in court on a felony charge of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report, and left jail after posting bond.

In the wake of gender equality and same-sex marriage, schools in France will now be unable to refer to a child’s parents as their “mother” or “father” on documents, instead the titles will be replaced with “parent 1” and “parent 2,” so as to accomodate gay couples.

World's football body, FIFA has banned premiership club, Chelsea from signing players for two transfer windows for breaking rules over the transfer of foreign minors. In a statement on Friday morning, FIFA confirmed the club was banned for breaking rules over the acquisition of 29 players under the age of 18 and also suggested that there have been a number of other infringements.

Former Chelsea and Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, has labeled former Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, ' a sweet enemy' outlining how hard it was to dislodge the Arsenal manager from the throne of English football. Mourinho and Wenger were involved in a number of heated exchanges with each other over the years, with Mourinho once labeling Wenger a 'specialist in failure' but Mourinho insists it has done nothing to diminish his respect for the 69-year-old.

A powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Ecuador during the early morning hours of Friday and at least six three people have sustained injuries. The earthquake occurred at 5:17 a.m. ECT/EST with the epicenter in the rural area located near the central border of Peru and Ecuador, according to the United States Geological Survey.

President Donald Trump has announced that he plans to nominate Kelly Knight Craft for the country's vacant post of United Nations envoy. Ms Knight Craft is currently the US ambassador to Canada, she will replace Nikki Haley, who resigned last year.

Former Liverpool coach, Brendan Rodgers has been appointed as the new manager of Leicester City after leaving Scottish Premiership giants Celtic. The Northern Irishman who won two straight Premiership titles for Celtic replaces Claude Puel who was sacked on Sunday, less than 24 hours after a disappointing 4-1 defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace. Rodgers' backroom staff are Glen Driscoll, Chris Davies, and former Manchester City and Liverpool defender Kolo Toure.

A Boeing 767 cargo jetliner heading to Houston with three people aboard disintegrated after crashing Saturday into a bay east of the city, according to a Texas sheriff.
Witnesses told emergency personnel that the twin-engine plane "went in nose first," leaving a debris field three-quarters of a mile long in Trinity Bay, Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said.
"It's probably a crash that nobody would survive," he said, referring to the scene as "total devastation."

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in last Saturday’s election, Atiku Abubakar, has rejected the result of the poll as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission. INEC had declared President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC as the winner of the election and returned him as duly elected. Read Atiku’s full statement below suggesting what he intends to do…

US President Donald Trump has arrived in Vietnam ahead of his second summit with North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. Air Force One landed at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport hours after Mr Kim reached the Vietnamese capital by train and car. The summit, which is due to take place today and tomorrow, follows a historic first round of talks in Singapore last year.

President Muhammadu Buhari has won his re-election bid as he polled 15,191,847 votes to defeat his closest rival, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party in the presidential poll conducted on February 23.
Atiku polled 11,262,978 to lose the election with a margin of 3,928,869 votes.
This is according to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s collated figure of votes from all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory released on Wednesday morning.

Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar in Qatar for US peace talks

One of the Afghan Taliban's co-founders is in Qatar for peace talks between the insurgents and the United States. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar spent eight years in Pakistani custody until his release last year.
His presence in Doha could help improve the chances of a deal being struck after several rounds of talks, correspondents say.
Last month's US-Taliban talks in Qatar made progress in ending 17 years of conflict in Afghanistan, the US said.

Namibia decriminalises dumping newborn babies

Namibia's government has now decriminalised the act of abandoning a newborn baby, which gender activists say is usually the result of difficulties in procuring legal terminations. Safe places will be put up where unwanted children can be left without prosecution of the mothers.
Statistics from the Namibian police show that in 2017 - 2018, only 25 cases of baby dumping were reported, but about 7,300 cases of abortion were recorded, The Namibian newspaper reports.
The abortion figure could, however, be as high as 10,000 because some cases went unreported, the paper says.

Venezuela crisis: Maduro closes border with Brazil

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro has closed the border with Brazil amid a row over humanitarian aid. The embattled leader said he could also shut the key border with Colombia to stop the opposition bringing in relief. Venezuela's inflation rate has seen prices soar, leaving many Venezuelans struggling to afford basic items such as food, toiletries and medicine.

Michael Jackson's Estate has just sued HBO, claiming the network screwed them over after promising not to take shots at MJ which they did in the upcoming documentary, "Leaving Neverland" ... and the suit claims damages could exceed $100 million.

A former staff on Donald Trump's presidential campaign team has accused him of sexual assault. Alva Johnson said Trump kissed her without her consent outside a rally in Florida in August 2016.
She told Washington Post:
I immediately felt violated because I wasn’t expecting it or wanting it.
I can still see his lips coming straight for my face.

Australia is letting drivers add an emoji to their official government issued licence plates. Drivers in the state of Queensland are able to add one of five emoji to the end of their usual state issued licence plate numbers from March 1.
People can choose "laughing out loud," "winking face," "cool sunglasses," "heart eyes," and "smiley face" emojis.

A monkey kidnapped a two-year-old boy from his home in India so it could have someone to play with and it refused to give the boy back to his family. In a video shared online, the monkey can be seen playing with the boy by the roadside. The monkey is seen at a point trying to remove something from the child's hair.

A top Catholic cardinal admitted Saturday that Church files on priests accused of sexually abusing children were destroyed or never even drawn up in a move which allowed paedophiles to prey on others. German Cardinal Reinhard Marx was speaking on the third day of an unprecedented summit of the world's top bishops convened by Pope Francis in a bid to tackle the crisis over paedophilia within the clergy.

The world’s biggest honey bee, a giant insect generally the measure of a human thumb has been rediscovered in a remote locale of Indonesia in its first sighting in about 40 years. Until recently, the last time Adam C. Messer had reported seeing Wallace’s giant bee living in the wild was in 1981. The bee is among the 25 “most wanted lost” species that are the focus of Global Wildlife Conservation’s “Search for Lost Species” initiative.

A Nigerian nanny has been found guilty of murdering an 8-month-old baby by force-feeding her half a pint of milk in less than 30 seconds. Oluremi Adeleye, 73, was trusted with the care of 8-month-old Enita Salubi in Maryland. But the nanny was captured on a nanny cam taking the teat off a bottle as she forced the child to guzzle down baby formula in October 2016.

The oldest known wild bird in the world has become a mother again at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, US wildlife officials said. The Laysan albatross named Wisdom hatched a chick earlier this month at the remote atoll northwest of Hawaii, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported on Monday. Wisdom is at least 68 years old and has raised at least 31 chicks, US Fish and Wildlife Service officials said. Wisdom was first banded as an adult in 1956.

Written cheque by Jussie Smollett reveals he paid $3,500 for a 'training fee' to the two Nigerian brothers and not to assault him (Screenshots)

A cheque of $3,500 that was written by Jussie Smollett to the two brothers who 'staged his attack' has revealed it was for a 'training fee'. According to TMZ, the 36-year-old actor wrote a check to Abimbola 'Abel' Osundairo on January 23, 2019, six days before Abel and his brother Olabinjo reportedly faked a hate crime attack on Smollett in Chicago.

Model, 23, who put her virginity up for sale with a notorious online escort agency claims to have secured a fee of £2M from an unnamed Tokyo politician. Mahbuba Mammadzada, 23, from Azerbaijan, hit headlines last year for announcing her controversial money-making scheme, and claimed this week the auction had finally come to a close.

A mother allegedly faked a doctors report and presented at her daughters' school so they could get a day off, then she drove them into the woods and killed them before turning the gun on herself outside her boyfriend’s house.
Abrianne Moore, 28, allegedly killed Alaina Rau, 2, Cassidy Rodery, 6, and Kyrie Rodery, 8, with a hunting rifle. She lured them out of the car one by one in woods behind their great-grandparents’ home in Kent County, Michigan, then shot them.

Embattled American singer, R. Kelly has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse he was charged with. His attorney Steve Greenberg entered the not guilty plea for Kelly on Monday and also revealed that Kelly has turned in his passport.

One of the most powerful men in the Roman Catholic Church, Australian Cardinal George Pell, 77, has been found guilty of multiple historical child sex offenses at a secret trial in Melbourne. Pell is almost certain to face prison after a jury found him guilty of one charge of sexual penetration of a child and four charges of an indecent act with or in the presence of a child in the late 1990s.

Robert Kraft, owner of the Super Bowl-winning New England Patriots, was charged in Florida with soliciting prostitution after he was captured on video engaging in sex acts with a worker at a massage parlor, police said on Friday. Kraft, 77, a billionaire businessman who built the Patriots into the National Football League’s most dominant franchise, was swept up in a police sting targeting sex-trafficking in day spas and massage parlors in several Florida counties. The operation has led to hundreds being charged.

Michael Jackson wore condoms every night to stop him wetting the bed, according to his doctor Conrad Murray. The medic who killed the King of Pop with a fatal injection of Propofol once claimed the pair were such close friends that he would hold the singer's p-nis every night and put the condoms on for him.

Jussie Smollett's bail has been set at $100,000 and he was ordered to surrender his passport at a bond hearing where he was supported by his family and prosecutors shared more details of his relationship with the two Nigerian brothers he allegedly paid to stage a hoax attack.

Jerry Springer says there's a simple solution Jussie Smollett could've pursued if he wanted a bump in salary from "Empire" brass -- get on the grind and lay off the alleged lies. The famed daytime TV host who's obviously seen plenty of crazy scenarios told TMZ at LAX that Jussie's story truly has him dumbfounded.

Cricket coach Irfan Ansari has been banned for 10 years from the sport for making an illicit approach to Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Wednesday. The ICC praised Sarfraz for his "true leadership" in reporting the approach by his compatriot, the United Arab Emirates-based Ansari, during the Pakistan v Sri Lanka one-day series in 2017.

Tearful Jussie Smollett apologises to Empire cast but insists he never did it

A tearful Jussie Smollett apologized to fellow cast and crew members before filming continued Thursday on the set of “Empire” in Chicago. Citing “sources on the ‘Empire’ set,” celebrity-news site TMZ said that the crew was kept waiting 30 minutes for Mr. Smollett to return from his arrest and processing on charges of faking a hate-crime and blaming President Trump’s supporters.

English Premier League club, Leicester City have sacked manager Claude Puel after 16 months in charge. Leicester City were beaten 4-1 at home by Crystal Palace on Saturday in what proved to be Puel's final game. Puel, 57, leaves the club 12th in the Premier League having lost five of their last six league games.

At least 130 people have died and more than 200 are being treated in hospital after drinking toxic bootleg alcohol in north-eastern India, officials said. Some 35 people were reported dead in the state of Assam on Sunday, days after about 100 people died in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Ten people have been arrested over the bootleg drink, a police official said. There were many women among the victims, who all worked on tea plantations.

A judge in the US has set bail at $1m (£760,000) for R Kelly who is charged with 10 counts of sex abuse. The R&B singer is accused of the aggravated sexual assault of four women between 1998 and 2010. His alleged victims include three who were aged between 13 and 17 at the time.
If found guilty, the 'I Believe I Can Fly' singer who turned himself in to Chicago police on Friday after an arrest warrant was issued against him could face up to 70 years in prison.
In a Chicago court on Saturday, Cook County judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr who presided over last week's bail hearing for actor Jussie Smollett said the bail amount represents $250,000 for each of the people he is charged with abusing.
The judge called the allegations "disturbing."

Olympic rowing gold medallist Maximilian Reinelt dies after collapsing while skiing in St Moritz

German Olympic rowing gold medallist, Maximilian Reinelt has died at the age of 30. Maximilian who was part of the German eight that won gold at the London Olympics in 2012 and silver four years later in Rio de Janeiro died over the weekend after collapsing while cross-country skiing in St. Moritz. Reinelt who hailed from Ulm in southern Germany also won two world championship gold medals and multiple European titles.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said Canada is looking at ways to bring over relatives of a Syrian refugee who lost her children in a house fire. Kawthar Barho's seven children died in an early morning fire in the Canadian city of Halifax on Tuesday. Her husband sustained life-threatening injuries in the fire (You can read the story here) .

A Chicago judge has said charges that US actor Jussie Smollett staged a hoax hate crime against himself are "utterly outrageous" and "despicable" if true. The 36-year-old African-American actor is accused of filing a fake police report claiming he was the victim of a homophobic and racist assault.
Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke, who is also black, said the "most vile" part of the incident was the use of a noose. Police say he staged the attack because he was "dissatisfied with his salary".

American singer, R. Kelly turned himself in and was placed in handcuffs as he entered a Chicago police station on Friday night, hours after he was indicted on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse a class 2 felony involving four alleged victims.

Johnson & Johnson is being investigated over fears its baby powder may cause cancer

Johnson & Johnson is being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission after questions surfaced about the safety of the company's baby powder. The investigation and subpoenas come on the heels of a Reuters report that suggested the company knew for years that its baby powder contained small amounts of asbestos, which is a human carcinogen.
The reason there could be asbestos in baby powder is that one of the primary ingredients is talc: a mineral that's often found and mined near asbestos. Unfortunately, most of the scientific studies to date on baby powder have relied on flawed methods. The evidence we do have doesn't suggest it directly increases cancer risk in a serious way.
Johnson & Johnson hasn't released any information to the public about how much asbestos is or was in their product.

Casino star Vinny Vella dies at 72

Casino star Vinny Vella has died at the age of 72, following a battle with liver cancer. A statement posted to the actor's Facebook page on Wednesday night revealed the actor had passed away.
Vinny's son, Vincent Vella Jr., revealed to TMZ has father had been suffering from liver cancer.
The star of numerous gangster films, Vinny's credits include the role of Artie Piscano in the 1995 crime film Casino and Jimmy Petrille in The Sopranos.

Thursday 28 February 2019

Wednesday 27 February 2019

Tuesday 26 February 2019

Monday 25 February 2019

Sunday 24 February 2019

Friday 22 February 2019