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

Thursday 31 October 2019

Chinatown and Godfather producer, Robert Evans dies at 89

Robert Evans, whose charisma rivaled some of the actors who appeared in the hit films he produced, died Saturday, according to his publicist Monique Evans. He was 89.
As a studio head, Evans helped resurrect Paramount Pictures in the 1960s by bringing such projects as "Chinatown," "The Godfather" and "Rosemary's Baby" to the big screen.
Evans seemed to epitomize Hollywood excesses with his seven marriages, outspoken nature and freewheeling lifestyle that he documented in his 1994 memoir, "The Kid Stays in the Picture." (The book was later developed into a 2002 documentary film.)
"There are three sides to every story: my side, your side, and the truth. And no one is lying," Evans once famously said. "Memories shared serve each one differently."
Born in New York City to a dentist and his wife, Evans was a child actor on radio and in the early years of television.

Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey announces plan to ban "all political advertising on Twitter globally"

Twitter will ban all political advertising on the platform globally, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has announced. He made this statement on Twitter and explained that they'll be stopping every paid political ad because they "believe political message reach should be earned not bought".
According to Jack Dorsey, paying for reach as regards politics "brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions.
He promised that details on the ban will follow in November.
Read his full statement on the matter below.

Roman Catholic bishops from across the Amazon recommended Saturday to allow married deacons to become priests -- a proposal intended to address a severe shortage in the region, but also one that breaks from centuries of church tradition.
The document by the Vatican gathering -- which needs to be affirmed by Pope Francis -- offers a significant shift in church views and could potentially signal a new strategy to modernize key tenets of Catholic tradition, such as priestly celibacy, as the church faces a worldwide decline in vocations.
The proposal, proponents say, would be narrowly applied to permit only selected men ordained as deacons to become priests. The gathering, however, stopped short of fully endorsing calls to allow women as deacons, an ecclesiastical position that can preside over some rites, such as witness marriages, but cannot celebrate Mass.

Nigeria: 228 inmates escape from Kogi Prison

There's been a jail break in Kogi after a flood occasioned by a heavy downpour led to the collapse of Koton Karfe custodial centre. Comptroller General of the Nigeria Correctional Service, Jaafaru Ahmed who confirmed this said the flood witnessed at about 3am on Monday October 28, destroyed parts of the perimeter fencing of the facility leading to the escape of all the 228 inmates. He said the incident occurred due to natural disaster.
Ahmed further disclosed that over 100 of the inmates have been rearrested and evacuated to safer facility after a combined team of security agencies were deployed to the area.

Long Beach, Calif. shooting: 3 dead, 9 hurt in costume party shooting

Three men were killed and nine other people were taken to hospitals after a shooting Tuesday night at a costume party at a home in the Southern California city of Long Beach, fire officials said.
All 12 were thought to be in their mid-20s, Long Beach Fire Department public information officer Jake Heflin said at the scene, but he said the information was preliminary.
Of the nine injured people, five were considered "immediate," or with injuries that paramedics believe could potentially be life-threatening, he said, but more details about the conditions were not immediately available.

At least 65 people have died and many more are injured in Pakistan after a packed passenger train blew up and burst into flames. The train erupted in a fireball after a gas canister being used to cook food exploded. The fire destroyed three of the train’s carriages near the town of Rahim Yar Khan in the south of Punjab province.
Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Geo TV: "Two cooking stoves blew up. They were cooking, they had (cooking) oil which added fuel to fire.

World number three Roger Federer announced on Monday that he was withdrawing from this week’s Paris Masters in order to “pace” himself for the next year.
“I am extremely disappointed to have to pull out of the Paris Masters. I have to pace myself since I want to play as long as possible on the ATP Tour. I am sorry for my French fans who I will see next year at Roland Garros” he said in a statement.

Seventy-two female MPs have written to the Duchess of Sussex to express their solidarity with her in the face of the "outdated, colonial undertones" which appear against her and her family in the press.
The parliamentarians, from across the political spectrum, said they supported her in "taking a stand against the often distasteful and misleading nature of the stories printed in a number of our national newspapers concerning you, your character and your family."
Stories and headlines had sometimes "sought to cast aspersions about your character, without any good reason as far as we can see," the letter added.

Shirtless man dies after dangling upside down from 290ft chimney for more than 14-hours

A man trapped at the top of a 290ft chimney in Carlisle for more than 14 hours has died. Police confirmed that the man in his 50s was brought down by fire and rescue services after more than 14 hours spent hanging from the structure. However officers confirmed the local resident had passed away before the rescue could take place.
The deceased was shirtless throughout the ordeal while hanging upside down by his legs from the top of Dixon’s Chimney, a former cotton mill tower. Officers were first called to the scene at 2:22am on Monday, October 28th. It is however currently unclear what led the man to scale the structure - a Grade II listed building raised in 1836 when it was the largest chimney in the country.
Superintendent Matt Kennerley of Cumbria Police said: "Paramedics confirmed the man, in his 50s and from Carlisle, as deceased at the scene at 16:46. The man was reported to be trapped at about 2:20am today, and a rescue operation was launched while a multi-agency group was later convened.

Mexican authorities find over 40 skulls at altar in den of suspected drug traffickers

Mexican authorities have found dozens of human skulls, bones and even a fetus in a glass jar next to an altar in the den of suspected drug traffickers. Prosecutors in Mexico City said 42 skulls, 40 jaw bones and 31 “long” bones — probably from arms or legs — were discovered last week at a property in the neighborhood of Tepito, were 31 people were arrested on suspicion of drug cartel activity.
A judge later ordered 27 of the suspects released.
DNA tests were being conducted on the bones to determined their identities and origins.
Four of the skulls were built into the altar, which appeared to be of an Afro-Caribbean religion, officials said.

Ed Sheeran is now UK’s richest star under 30 after taking the top spot from Adele. The 28-year-old singer who has had a successful year topped Heat magazine’s annual guide to the UK’s wealthiest stars aged 30 and under, having jumped from an estimated worth of £94 million in 2017 to £170 million.
Sheeran, who was in second place last year, took the first spot from fellow music star Adele as she turned 31 in May. She is no longer eligible for the accolade

The remains of late ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been disposed of at sea as it is revealed that U.S. forces were able to confirm his identity using DNA samples taken from his underwear and blood. Baghdadi blew himself up after being cornered by U.S forces in a dead-end underground tunnel in his Syrian compound on Saturday, October 26th. His remains were then buried at sea, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Mike Milley, revealed.

A small plane crashed into a home in Colonia Tuesday morning. At least three homes were on fire following the crash. The Colonia Fire Department said they were "trying to save the neighborhood."
As many as 200 firefighters were said to be battling the blazes after a Cessna 414 crashed into the home at 11 a.m.
The mayor of Colonial, John McCormac, said the pilot was the only person on the aircraft.
No one was in the home that was directly hit and a woman in the house next door was able to escape, McCormac said. There were no injuries on the ground, he said.

Update: Bulgaria fined £65k and ordered to play two matches behind closed doors for racist abuse at black England players

UEFA has ordered Bulgaria to play two matches behind closed doors, and fined £65,000 over the racist behaviour of fans during the Euro 2020 qualifier against England on October 14. One Bulgarian fan was also suspended for two years for his part in the racism scandal.
The ban comes after a section of supporters at the match in Sofia's Levski Stadium directed racial abuse at England's black players, while some were pictured making Nazi salutes.

Shigeru Miyamoto is a titan in the video game industry, having created beloved franchises such as "Mario Bros." and "The Legend of Zelda."
For his work, Japanese news outlet Nikkei reports, Miyamoto is being awarded the Person of Cultural Merit by the Japanese government on November 3, which is recognized nationally as Culture Day in Japan. The award is the highest honor a person in a creative field can receive in Japan, and Miyamoto is the first person in the video game industry to receive the honor.

Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord on Tuesday reopened Mitiga Airport, Tripoli’s only functioning airport, after almost two months of closure, the transportation minister said. The Minister, Milad Matoq, announced at a news conference in Tripoli.
The airport had been shut since Sept. 1 after being struck by artillery fire. The source of the attack was not clear.
“The return of flights depends on the carriers and airport management. It needs time to re-schedule flights, possible a week to 10 days or two weeks,” Matoq said.

The Pentagon's mysterious space plane just landed in Florida after record-long 780 days in space

The Pentagon's secretive X-37B spaceplane landed in Florida on Sunday after a record-long orbital flight lasting more than two years, the US Air Force said, capping the latest test mission for an array of military technologies. The unpiloted X-37B, built by Boeing Co., touched down on an air strip at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 3:51 a.m. ET after spending 780 days orbiting Earth as the Air Force's fifth flight mission under the Orbital Test Vehicle program, the Air Force said.

Egypt’s first smartphone maker, SICO, said it will begin exporting its devices to Germany in November as part of its expansion plan to sell its products in Europe and Africa, its chairman told Reuters.
Silicon Industries Corporation (SICO), which already exports to the Gulf and aims to start selling phones in other European countries, said it signed an agreement in October with a company operating in Europe to market its products.
“We will begin exporting from Upper Egypt to Germany, Holland, Austria, and then Sweden, Norway and Finland,” its chairman Mohamed Salem said.

84-year-old tries to burn French mosque, shoots two

An 84-year-old former candidate for France's ultra-right party shot and wounded two men in their seventies Monday as he attacked a mosque, prompting the government to express "solidarity" with Muslims hours after railing against Islamic "separatism".
The octogenarian attacked the mosque as two men were preparing it for afternoon prayers, Bayonne mayor Jean-Rene Etchegaray told AFP at the scene.

A 19-year-old man was sentenced to three months in federal prison after he stole America's oldest ring-tailed lemur from a California zoo and abandoned it in plastic drawer labeled "Lemur (with tracker)," prosecutors said Monday. Aquinas Kasbar pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of illegally taking an endangered species. He's also been ordered to pay $8,486 in restitution to the zoo.
Prosecutors said Kasbar broke in to the Santa Ana Zoo in July 2018, used bolt cutters to open the lemur enclosure, and stole a 32-year-old animal named Isaac.

Justin Bieber took to Instagram earlier today to let his fans know that his next studio album could be dropping in the next two months, providing he gets enough love and hype on social media. "If this gets 20 million likes Justin Bieber will release an album before Christmas," read the post image, which sees the musician referring to himself in the third person. He then asked people to, "Share it, like it, post in your story, I gotta see the demand 😉 love you guys pumped for it! I'm almost done but your support will make me move faster."

If you were to write out every number (one, two, three, etc.), you wouldn't use the letter "b" until you reached one billion.

American schools are turning to 'vape detectors' to snuff out secret smokers

With alarms bells ringing over a sudden surge in vaping related illnesses and deaths, an increasing number of American high schools are turning to vape detectors to snuff out bathroom smokers.
As originally reported by CNN, these vape detectors, which often resemble carbon monoxide detectors, can be placed in areas where students are likely to sneak off to vape, such as bathrooms and closets. These are different from traditional cigarette smoke detectors, which often fail to detect vape smoke.

How does it work?

US presidential candidate Joe Biden was denied Holy Communion on Sunday, when he attended Mass at a South Carolina Catholic Church, because of his support for legal abortion. Rev. Fr. Robert Morey, a priest at St. Anthony Catholic Church in the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina, denied the Democratic presidential candidate Holy Communion at Sunday Mass for his support of legal abortion, the Florence Morning News reported Monday.

Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad al-Hariri resigns after week of protests

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri has tendered his resignation and that of his government, after over a week of protests that paralysed the country, as the people accuse authorities of corruption and of causing an economic collapse. Hariri, who was in the office since December 2016, announced his resignation during a televised address to the nation, the second time he would do so. “I have reached a dead end today,” he said.

South Africa has reinstated permission for Zimbabwe's national airline to fly into Johannesburg after the company was banned from using SA airports over unpaid fees. State-owned Air Zimbabwe's only serviceable plane was stopped from leaving Johannesburg last week after failing to pay for airport services. The dispute was resolved on Friday when the airline settled its debt, said South Africa's airport management company on Monday.

As vape-related illnesses continue to mount, people are increasingly sharing the symptoms they've experienced from using the devices, including one called "vape tongue."
During a recent Colorado vaping focus groups for teens, many young vapers said they had experienced vape tongue, a condition where vape juice desensitizes a person's tongue so they can't taste flavours anymore, Thomas Ylioja, a tobacco-cessation expert at Denver's National Jewish Health, told Wall Street Journal.

Southampton’s players and coaching staff are to donate their wages from last Friday to the Saints Foundation in a first step towards redeeming themselves following the 9-0 thrashing by Leicester City.Friday’s rout equalled Manchester United’s 9-0 demolition of Ipswich at Old Trafford in March 1995 for the biggest win in Premier League history. Saints manager Ralph Hassenhuttl, who accepted the blame for the humiliation has the daunting task of rebuilding his players morale ahead of two trips to Manchester City this week.Southampton play League Cup holders City in the fourth round of the competition on Tuesday and are back there on Saturday for a Premier League clash.

Gunmen killed 15 civilians in northern Burkina Faso over the weekend, security and local sources said on Monday, in the latest deadly attack as the impoverished West African country battles a jihadist revolt.
"On Saturday night numerous armed individuals attacked the village of Pobe-Mengao and kidnapped several residents, ransacked shops and carried away equipment," a local source said.
A security source said "the lifeless bodies of 11 people were found on Sunday morning... probably the bodies of those abducted the day before in Pobe-Mengao by an armed terrorist group".

A 67-year-old Chinese woman has become the world's oldest mother to conceive naturally after she recently gave birth to a baby girl. The new mother named, Tian, delivered a healthy girl by Caesarean section on Friday, October 25, Zaoatzhuang city's Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital confirmed. But the hospital said it could not confirm that Tian had conceived naturally as she was already pregnant when they took her as a patient.

A Yellow Fever outbreak in Matazu Local Government Area of Katsina State has allegedly led to the death of 115 people. While members of the affected communities said they've lost 115 people, the local government authorities claimed only 18 people died in three weeks of the disease outbreak. A former councillor of Kogari ward who spoke to Daily Trust, said Kogari was first hit by the disease before spreading to Unguwar-Sarka community.

While online dating was once seen as a last resort, it’s now the go-to method for many single people looking for love. Now, one couple who met on Tinder have got engaged, and to credit the smartphones that brought them together they’ve commissioned a special engagement ring.
The ring, which was created by O2 Recycle and Lylie’s, is crafted exclusively from the couple’s iPhone 5s smartphones, including the devices’ speakers, microphones and cameras.

Mozambique's incumbent President Filipe Nyusi has won 73 percent of the votes in this month's presidential poll, the electoral commission said, securing a landslide victory in a contest opposition parties say was marred by fraud and violence. Ossufo Momade, the candidate for the main opposition party and former rebel movement Renamo, trailed behind with 21.88 percent of the vote, National Election Commission Chairman Abdul Carimo said at a news conference on Sunday.

A technical secondary school in Xinzheng, China has enacted strict disciplinary procedures to discourage students from coming late. Late comers will pay a fine of £1 per minute and those who can't afford to pay will have to do 500 push-ups instead. The policy was said to be set up by the class's supervising teacher to maintain discipline.
'Our class rules are strict, so what?' A female teacher can be heard questioning a pupil who had complained about the fine in audio leaked by pupils.
'Even if you are late for half a second, you need to pay 10 yuan (£1),' the educator continued.

Muzaffar Ghanghro was arrested and charged in connection with the outbreak (C)GettyImages

At least 900 children have tested positive for HIV amid allegations a paediatrician repeatedly reused old syringes in Pakistan. Muzaffar Ghanghro has been charged with negligence, manslaughter and causing unintentional harm following the outbreak in the small city of Ratodero in April.
The paediatrician, believed to have been charging 16p per visit for the area's poorest parents, works as a GP at a government hospital.
So far 1,100 people are positive for the virus but health officials fear the number of those infected could be far higher as less than a quarter of the city's 200,000 population has been tested.

Monday 28 October 2019

2 people are buried on a runway at a major US airport where hundreds of planes land every day, and many people have no idea

While runway 10 at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in Georgia may not be a particularly difficult or scary landing, it does involve touching down on a pair of graves. Like many airports, Savannah/Hilton Head was built on former farmland. Farmland often comes with ancient burial sites and family plots, and most airports deal with it by moving any graves they find to nearby cemeteries.
But when the Savannah airport needed to expand during World War II, it was met with resistance from descendants of the Dotson family.

England face a possible fine from World Rugby following their response to the All Blacks’ haka prior to their semi-final in Yokohama last Saturday. According to The Guardian website, as the All Blacks lined up for their traditional pre-game war dance, England's players formed a 'V'-shape and had to be told repeatedly by officials to retreat when they crossed the halfway line.
England’s players revealed that coach Eddie Jones was behind the plan to counter New Zealand’s traditional Maori challenge in order to show they were “ready for anything”.
watch the video after the cut

US President, Donald Trump has just confirmed the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. During a press conference at the White House this morning, the President said, ''last night the United States brought the world's number one terrorist leader to justice. Abu Bakr al-baghdadi is dead".
"He was the founder and leader of ISIS. The most ruthless and violent terror organization anywhere in the world. The United States has been searching for Baghdadi for many years. Capturing or killing Baghdadi has been the top national security priority of my administration"

Lebron James hairpiece slides off during game (video)

Lebron James suffered an embarrassing moment during the Los Angeles Lakers game with Utah Jazz at STAPLES Center on Friday, October 25, 2019. The basketball legend led his team to win against their opponent but during the game, his lacefront hairpiece came off and it was captured on camera.
Lebron, who has been open about using surgical assistance to fix his receding hairline was filmed adjusting his lace front wig after his teammate Anthony Davis alerted him.
Watch the video after the cut

A Russian serviceman has shot dead eight fellow soldiers and seriously injured two more on a military base in the country's Far East, officials say. Private Ramil Shamsutdinov - who has been detained - might have been suffering from mental health problems, they say. The shooting happened in the military unit No. 54160 in the village of Gorny, not far from the city of Chita, on Friday evening. A murder investigation is under way.

England put on one of the great Rugby World Cup performances to stun two-time defending champion New Zealand 19-7 and book its place in the final for the first time since 2007. From the very first whistle, those in white proved too strong, too fast and too skillful as the All Blacks wilted under 80 minutes of intense, brutal England pressure. It was the first time England had ever beaten New Zealand in a World Cup match, ending the All Blacks' record 18-match winning streak in the competition, a run stretching back to 2011.

Felicity Huffman has been released from prison after serving only 11 days out of her 14-day prison sentence over her role in a massive college admissions scandal. The California Board of Prisons said the actress who started off her prison sentence on October 15 at a Federal Prison in Dublin, California with approximately 1,200 female inmates was released early in adherence to a policy of inmates getting released on Friday if their release date falls on a weekend.
Recall Huffman who admitted to paying $15,000 in an effort to boost her eldest daughter's SAT score also received one year of probation, 250 hours of community service and a $30,000 fine she has already paid.

South Africa bans Air Zimbabwe over debts

South Africa has stopped Zimbabwe’s national airline from using its airports over unpaid fees, the country’s airport management company said Thursday. Zimbabwe’s economy has been in tatters since former president Robert Mugabe led a devastating land reform policy that sent inflation spiralling and led to crippling shortages of food, fuel and medicines. The state-owned Air Zimbabwe has laid off hundreds of staff over the past two years.

Working long hours may be beneficial for your bank account but it could be bad news for your hair. A new study has discovered career success may come at a price after finding that people who work more than 52 hours a week are twice as likely to go bald.
Research into the links between longer working hours and hair loss has taken results from 13,000 men in South Korea, where its commonplace to far exceed 40 hours at work each week.

A soccer team is being praised for their sportsmanship after they formed a human shield to give privacy to a member of the opposing team whose hijab began to fall off.
Watch the video after the cut:

US rapper Eminem was questioned by the Secret Service over violent lyrics about Ivanka Trump in his song Framed. Ivanka Trump is the 37-year-old daughter of US president Donald Trump .
Enimem, real name Marshall Mathers, released the song in 2017, and it contains the lyric: "How the f**k is Ivanka Trump in the trunk of my car?"
He then calls her a "dumb little blonde" and says she "got dumped in the pond".

39 migrants were found dead in a truck in Essex, most of them naked or with minimal clothing with foam coming out of their mouths. The identities of some of the victims have now been revealed as their families narrate their reason for migrating.
The 8 women and 31 men found dead in the truck are believed to have been frozen to death in the back of a truck after a desperate attempt to reach Britain. Before they died, they had desperately "banged on the doors" for help.

A shooting which occurred in the early hours of Sunday October 27, after hundreds of students gathered at The Party Venue in Greenville which is near Dallas, to celebrate the start of a new term at Texas A&M Commerce College, reportedly left two people dead. Injured victims of the shooting were spotted in the videos shared online with at least one victim of the shooting receiving a CPR as many people screamed in the background.

Back in June, transgender campaigner Ben Saunders contacted sanitary product brand Always to ask them one important question. Why do they feature feminine logos on all of their packaging? And it turns out that Ben wasn't the only person who wanted to know the answer.
A Twitter user who goes by the name Melly Boom also messaged Always, asking why it is "imperative to have the female symbol on their sanitary products".
She added: "There are non-binary and trans folks who still need to use your products too you know!"

The couple identified as the last known owners of the lorry carrying 39 Chinese migrants who froze to death in UK have been arrested today after police swooped on their £400,000 Cheshire home. Joanna Maher, 38, and her husband Thomas, also 38, from Warrington, are understood to have been held on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and on suspicion of 39 counts of manslaughter.

Thursday 31 October 2019

Wednesday 30 October 2019

Tuesday 29 October 2019

Monday 28 October 2019