Welcome to Olamama's blog!!!: January 2020

Friday 31 January 2020

Snake charmer killed by king cobra bite while showing off his skills to villagers (video)

A snake charmer has died after being bitten by a king cobra while he was showing off his "magic skills" to villagers. The black magic shaman, named Norjani, caught the huge reptile a week ago in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. He kept it locked in his wooden hut for "traditional medicine" before bringing it out to show neighbours on Saturday, January 25, 2020.
In a video making the rounds, Norjani is seen teasing the king cobra. As he did, the reptile hissed and lunged towards him then plunged its deadly fangs into Norjani's arm.

Nigeria's Victor Moses on Wednesday night made his first appearance for his new club, Inter Milan as the Italian heavyweights defeated Fiorentina 2-1 in the Coppa Italia clash at the 50,000 capacity Stadio Guiseppe Meaza . Candreva and Nicolo Barella got the goals for Inter Milan, while Martin Caceres scored for Fiorentina during the game. Moses started the game on the bench bt replaced Antonio Candreva 16 minutes from time.

Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park is a long way from the ocean, but newly discovered fossils suggest the area was once teeming with sharks. Scientists have identified the remains of 15 to 20 different species of sharks deep in the cave, including part of the head of a great white-sized monster that's partially protruding from a wall, paleontologist John-Paul Hodnett told CNN.
The sharks lived about 330 million years ago in what is known as the Late Mississippian geologic time period, when much of North America was covered by oceans. When they died, their remains were encased in sediment that eventually became the limestone where the cave formed.

Amazon founder and world’s richest person, Jeff Bezos has raked in $13 Billion to his fortune in just 15 minutes, cementing his position as the world’s richest person further. After an Amazon news release for the fourth quarter revealed that sales went up 21 percent during the holiday quarter on Thursday, the news sent the stock up by about 12% to $2,100 after-hours trading, adding a swift $12.8 billion to Bezos’ fortune in about 15 minutes.
At the current price, the Amazon founder traded places with Bill Gates for the title of the richest person in the World in recent months. He is now worth $128.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The late surge Thursday also added more than $90 billion to Amazon’s market value, pushing it above $1 trillion.

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty to retire in April

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, who has led the tech giant since 2012, will step down in April. Rometty will be succeeded by Arvind Krishna, who is currently Big Blue's senior vice president for cloud and cognitive software. Jim Whitehurst, the Red Hat CEO who many thought would take over for Rometty, will become IBM's president. Both moves take effect on April 6. Rometty will remain executive chairman of IBM until her retirement at the end of the year.
Shares of IBM (IBM) were up 5% after hours on the news.

Former US Vice-president Joe Biden has stated that he could die while in office if elected as US president this year. Biden is the favorite to clinch the Democratic slot for President in the upcoming 2020 US presidential elections and will battle it out with Trump if he clinches the nomination, but says he will need to select a vice president who can quickly assume presidency in case he dies.
Biden's reference about his age came after a man in the crowd asked if he would pick Senator Kamala Harris to be his VP.

Federal agents have discovered a drug smuggling tunnel that stretches about three-quarters of a mile -- the longest ever discovered along the Southwest border. The 4,309-foot tunnel starts in Tijuana, Mexico, just about 250 feet south of the border. It travels underground into San Diego County, California.
It is equipped with air ventilation, electricity, an extensive rail and cart system, and even an elevator at the each entrance, according to US Customs and Border Protection.

Manchester city have qualified for the Caraboa cup final and will now face Aston Villa despite losing 0-1 to rivals, Manchester United at the Etihad - the second time Pep Guardiola's men have lost to Manchester United at the Etihad this season. Man. City on Wednesday night, came into the match with a 3-1 win obtained during the first leg at Old Trafford, but were shocked by a first half strike by Nemanja Matic, resulting in a 1-0 scoreline. United needed to score one more to equalize the game, and even though goals from Aguero and Sterling were canceled as offsides, United could not muster the second goal, instead midfielder Matic was sent off in the second half for receiving his second yellow card of the game.

China's richest man, Jack Ma, has donated 100 million yuan (£11 million) to help towards defeating the coronavirus disease, that has rampaged much of China, with close to 170 people already dead and over 7700 already infected. Jack Ma, who is worth £32.9 billion, owns E-commerce giants, AliBaba, and has donated the money to scientists across the world who are working towards creating a vaccine for the coronavirus while £4.4 million of the money will go to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Former K-pop idol Seungri has been indicted on charges including prostitution and habitual gambling, about a year since allegations first came to light in a sexual abuse scandal that has rocked South Korea's entertainment industry.
The former Big Bang singer was indicted without detention for allegedly organizing prostitutes, habitual gambling, and illegal foreign currency trade, a PR official from the Seoul Central Prosecutors' office confirmed to CNN Thursday. CNN has reached out to Seungri's lawyer for comment.

A province in Indonesia is offering a reward to anyone brave enough to free an enormous wild crocodile from a motorcycle tire. According to Indonesia's state-run Antara news agency, the 13-foot (4-meter) crocodile has been carrying the tire since 2016, when it was first spotted roaming the Palu River in the province of Central Sulawesi.
The crocodile survived an earthquake and tsunami that struck the region in 2018 -- but the tire hadn't budged from its neck, according to the report.

Kenya Airways has become the latest airline to suspend flights to and from China. "We have temporarily suspended all flights to and from Guangzhou starting Friday, 31st January 2020, until further notice. Our consultation with the Ministries of Health and Foreign Affairs will continue and we will provide updates as the situation develops,” the airline said in a statement on Friday.
"The safety of our customers and staff remains our highest priority," it added.
Other airlines have also suspended flights: British Airways, United Airlines, Air Canada, American Airlines, Air Asia, Cathay Pacific, Air India, IndiGo, Lufthansa and Finnair have announced plans to slash the number of flights they are operating to China or stop flying to the country entirely.
Other airlines like Delta are offering customers refunds or change fee waivers.

Military jet repatriating French citizens departs Wuhan

A French military aircraft evacuating 200 French citizens departed Wuhan for France early on Friday morning local time, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV, which spoke with a passenger on board. The jet is expected to land at the Istres-Le Tube Air Base in southern France around noon Friday local time.
After arriving, the citizens on board will be quarantined for 14 days at a resort in Carry-le-Rouet, a small town near Marseille, according to the region’s police chief.

As the coronavirus spreads, fear is fueling racism and xenophobia

As the virus has spread globally, so have public paranoia and anti-Chinese fears. Many people of Asian descent say they have been treated like walking pathogens. One Chinese-Malaysian woman in London told CNN that when she rode the bus this week, the person in the next seat got up and moved.
Misinformation about Chinese food: The trade and consumption of wild animals is a real problem in China. But online panic has spread harmful misinformation, perpetuating stereotypes about Chinese food and fueling anti-Chinese sentiment.

Football legend Luis Figo accused of copying Cristiano Ronaldo's tribute to Kobe Bryant word for word

Football legend, Luis Figo has been accused of copying and pasting Cristiano Ronaldo's heartfelt 48-word tribute to NBA legend Kobe Bryant after his tragic death in helicopter crash. Football fans were quick to spot out the similarity between the two posts as it appeared word-for-word on Figo's Twitter page after his Portuguese counterpart posted the same exact words.
Ronaldo was first to post his message on Sunday afternoon which featured an image of Bryant holding a basketball to his head.

Happy days are back at last for former 'Love and Hip Hop: New York' star Mendeecees Harris. The 'Love and Hip Hop: New York' alum has reportedly been released from prison after four years and is reunited with his wife Yandy Smith-Harris and kids. Yandy took to her Instagram account and uploaded a new video following Mendeecees' release. She captioned her video, "Never going back...@mendeecees." Her post was a video of the couple walking out of an SUV together

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has confirmed the first cases in the Middle East of the new deadly coronavirus, saying that doctors were treating a family that had recently come from a city at the centre of the outbreak. The UAE's Ministry of Health said on Wednesday it had diagnosed the coronavirus in a four-member Chinese family.

The soccer star became the first person in the world to reach 200 million followers on Instagram and announced the milestone with a photo montage on Wednesday. The Juventus forward beat out, well, everyone for the mark. He stands at around 200.2 million followers. The only account he trails is Instagram itself, which has 330.5 million as of Wednesday. Singer Ariana Grande is third, per Brand Watch, and still has some ground to cover to reach Ronaldo. She has 173.1 million.

Christian Eriksen is officially an Inter Milan player after securing his £17.5million move from Tottenham. The Danish star, who had since agreed on personal terms with the Serie A giants, had his medical on Monday and put pen to paper on his new contract through until June 2024.
The deal is reportedly worth around £6.5m per season plus bonuses.
The 27-year-old was unveiled today inside the famous La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy. Despite wearing the No 23 at Tottenham, Eriksen will wear the No 24 shirt for Inter Milan. Speaking to InterTV once the move was confirmed, Eriksen said: 'I couldn't wait to get there, being here is beautiful and I'm happy to be a new Inter player.

A man broke the arms of an 18-month-old baby girl because she wouldn't stop crying. Connor Brown, 22, had his girlfriend's child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on his lap when she started crying. After trying to get her to stop crying, he picked her up and forced her arms behind her back causing them to snap.
He admitted assaulting the girl after the child's mother told how she heard a crack when the girl's arms were forced behind her back.

Premiership club, Tottenham have completed the signing of Dutch winger, Steven Bergwijn from PSV Eindhoven in a deal worth £27m. The 22-year-old signed with Tottenham today on a deal that runs until 2025. Steven will wear the No 23 shirt at his new club. His arrival will reinforce the attacking options at Jose Mourinho's disposal, who hopes to break into the top four in the league table to secure Champions League qualification.

Much is still unknown about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, and health officials are urging vigilance. That means travelers crisscrossing the globe should be aware of the virus, steer clear of heavily impacted areas and exercise some of the same kinds of preventive measures they'd use to avoid influenza and other illnesses.
Here's what travelers should know about the virus outbreak:

Check travel advisories: Several countries, including the US, UK and Canada are warning against all nonessential travel to Hubei province, or even to the rest of mainland China.
Airlines are suspending flights to China: Airlines based in Asia, Europe and North America are canceling flights to China. British Airways suspended direct flights between Britain and China on Wednesday. US carrier United Airlines announced that it has suspended flights from February 1 through February 8 between US hubs and Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Other airlines, including Lufthansa, Air Asia, Cathay Pacific, Air India and Finnair have similarly slashed or suspended service.

All football matches in mainland China starting from Thursday will be postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to the country's governing football body.
"The Chinese Football Association will continue to maintain close communication with national authorities, to determine the timing of each event in this season based on the actual development of the epidemic situation at various locales. It will make reasonable adjustments to the system, schedule, and scale of some events when necessary," said a statement on the association’s website on Thursday.
The Chinese Super League is the top tier of professional football in China, and was originally scheduled to kick off on February 22.

Meet the 75-year old foster mum who raised 600 kids

A foster mom who raised more than 600 children in the past 50 years has said she loved all of them “like they were my own”.
Linda Herring, 75, has devoted her adult life to fostering kids from Johnson County, Iowa, never turning a child away. Herring was known by everyone for never turning away a child, no matter their age, gender, or special needs and would regularly travel to collect them.
The story of her selfless devotion to helping vulnerable kids emerged when she was honored by the Johnson County Department of Human Services' Board of Supervisors with a resolution of appreciation for fostering more than 600 children in the community.

Italian football club, AC Milan paid an emotional tribute to Kobe Bryant in a spectacular way before and during Tuesday's Coppa Italia clash with Torino at the San Siro. Kobe, who grew up in Italy between the age of 6 and 13, was a strong Milan supporter, with Marco van Basten being his idol. The NBA legend died with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, along with seven others in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California on Sunday, January, 26, 2020.

Rafael Nadal crashes out of Australian Open against Dominic Thiem

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal's quest for a 20th grand slam title to equal Roger Federer is on hold after he lost to Austrian Dominic Thiem in the quarter finals of the Australian Open. The Spaniard succumbed 7-6 7-6 4-6 7-6 (8-6) to the fifth seed Wednesday to become the first member of the "big three" to slip up in Melbourne after Federer and Novak Djokovic set up a meeting in the final four Tuesday.
Thiem, appearing in his first Australian Open quarterfinal, edged the brutal encounter with a powerful array of groundstrokes on Rod Laver Arena.
The 26-year-old will meet Alexander Zverev in the semifinal, a youthful match up compared with that of Swiss great Federer and Djokovic, who have a combined 13 Australian Open titles between them.

At least 30 people have been killed and 17 are still missing after two days of heavy rain led to widespread floods and landslides in Brazil's southeast, according to civil defence officials. More than 2,500 people were evacuated from their homes in the hardest-hit Minas Gerais state as the downpours drenched the region over Friday and Saturday. The deaths were reported in the regional capital, Belo Horizonte, and across the state.

Aerial spraying to beat back a plague of locusts swarming across Kenya will cost $70 million, the UN estimates. Millions of the insects have invaded the East African nation from Somalia and Ethiopia, devouring farmland and just about anything else in their path. The locust outbreak is the worst in 70 years for Kenya.
“Even cows are wondering what is happening,” Ndunda Makanga, a local farmer told the Associated Press. “Corn, sorghum, cowpeas, they have eaten everything.”

Isaiah Wanjala, the 14-year-old boy who wanted to sell one of his kidneys to finance his high secondary education, has finally joined his dream school. This follows intervention from the office of Trans Nzoia County MP Janet Nangabo through her foundation and other well-wishers. Dressed in full school uniform of the Chewoiyet Boys’ High School, shortly after being admitted, Wanjala said that his dream of becoming an engineer is back on course.

IME Magazine will honor Kobe Bryant with a cover featuring the late NBA star in his Lakers uniform taking a final bow. Photographed by CPi Syndication’s Michael Muller, the cover honoring the basketball champion features Bryant wearing his famed number 24 Jersey.
The magazine will hit newsstands on Friday, January 31.

Paedophile who r.a.p.e.d a 12-year-old girl in school toilet is set to be castrated

A paedophile who r.a.p.e.d a 12-year-old girl in a school toilet is set to be castrated for his twisted crime. The s.e.x fiend, named only as Valiev in court hearings, spent one hour roaming around the school unnoticed before carrying out the attack. The sick 38-year-old "wandering and cruised around the educational institution unnoticed by the security guards as he was hunting for a victim," police reports said. And eventually he struck in a lavatory in Taraz, Kazakhstan.

A cure seems to be in sight for the deadly coronavirus after a team of Australian scientists announced that they have recreated the virus. The breakthrough annoucement made by researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne on Wednesday January 29, is expected to quicken the creation of a vaccine.
Doherty Institute Deputy Director, Mike Catton told reporters that they will share the sample which was grown from an infected patient with the World Health Organization and laboratories around the world.

France has pledged to outlaw the practice of culling unwanted male chicks by the end of 2021, as part of animal welfare reforms. About seven billion male chicks - not wanted for meat or eggs - are killed around the world each year, usually in shredding machines or by gas.
The government said new methods were emerging that would make it possible to test the sex of embryos inside the egg. But some campaigners said the reforms did not go far enough.
French Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume announced the reforms at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday.
"From the end of 2021, nothing will be like it was before," he said.

Iranian passenger plane skidded off the runway onto a city road -- and nobody was hurt

An Iranian passenger plane with 135 people on board has skidded off the runway and onto a road with its wheels still retracted -- and, miraculously, no one was hurt. Photos and videos from the scene on Monday in the Iranian city of Mahshahr show the Caspian Airlines plane grounded in the middle of the road, with traffic banked up and pedestrians on either side. The plane, lying flat on its belly, appears largely undamaged.
Passengers appeared to help each other out of the twin-engine, single-aisle commercial jet, carrying children and suitcases. Some left through the main doors, while others climbed out emergency exits onto the plane wings.

California rescuers have recovered the bodies of all nine victims from the scene of the helicopter crash that killed NBA legend Kobe Bryant, the coroner's office confirmed Tuesday. Three bodies were first retrieved from the scattered wreckage on Sunday, the day of the crash. On Monday, the remaining six were located as the search resumed.
In a statement, the Los Angeles County coroner's office said the remains were 'removed from the crash site and transported to the department's forensic science center' for examination and identification.

A Scottish retired welder has declared that he is very much alive after his ex-wife erected his gravestone which made his friends stopped calling him for months, thinking he was dead. 'People think that I'm dead,' said Alan Hattel, 75, from Tayside, Scotland. 'My phone hasn't rung for three or four months. I've been confused by it all but now I know why nobody has been calling.'

Tinder is following in Uber's lead in adding in-app safety features for dates that become unsafe.
The dating app is adding new safety features, including a panic button that alerts safety authorities if something goes wrong during a date. Tinder has also added the ability to check-in, telling friends where the daters are.

Former England rugby player and presenter, Brian Moore, has discovered he is half Chinese after meeting some of his relatives for the first time at his birth mother's funeral. The 58-year-old, who was adopted shortly after birth had previously written in his autobiography about being abandoned by his Malaysian father before his mother, Rina Kirk, gave him up for adoption.

A group of irate Manchester United fans have attacked the home of Manchester United chief executive Ed Woodward as a sign of displeasure to how he has been running the club since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. The fans, understood to be members of United's notorious 'Men In Black' hooligan firm - launched an attack on Woodward's luxurious £2m Cheshire mansion, in which he lives with his wife and two young children according to the Sun UK.

The husband of Christina Mauser who was among the nine people that died in the helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, has spoken out about his devastating loss. Speaking on The Today show, Matt Mauser held back tears as he discussed his wife and what she meant to their family.
”It’s horrible. I got three small kids and am trying to figure out how to navigate life with three kids and no mom,” he said this morning. “I’m scared. I think more than anything. I’m a little scared about the future.”

Three rockets struck the US Embassy compound in Baghdad on Sunday, leaving one person injured, a US official told CNN initial reports indicate. The official said the injury was minor and the individual had since returned to duty.
In a call with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "expressed his outrage at the continued assaults by Iran's armed groups against US facilities in Iraq, including yesterday's rocket attacks against our Embassy, which resulted in one injury," a readout from State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said.

The Associated Press news agency (AP) has apologized after cropping a Ugandan climate activist from a photograph where she had posed with her white peers after a press conference in Davos, Switzerland. Climate activist Vanessa Nakate said she was invited to attend a youth climate science event. When news coverage of the event emerged, she noticed she had been cropped out of a photograph, where she appeared alongside alongside activists Greta Thunberg, Isabelle Axelsson, Luisa Neubauer and Loukina Tille.

Economic inequality is widening across the world and women in particular are feeling its effects as care work remains undervalued, according to a new report by anti-poverty charity Oxfam. The world's 22 richest men, for instance, own more wealth than all 325 million women in Africa combined, Oxfam's Time to Care report showed.
"When 22 men have more wealth than all the women in Africa combined, it's clear that our economy is just plain sexist," Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive at Oxfam Great Britain said in conjunction with the report's publication on Monday.

A Russian woman is facing charges over the murder of her newborn baby who was found dead in a washing machine. Russian authorities said in an official report that the popular hairdresser Nadezhda Zavialova, 31, gave birth to her fourth child prematurely during the night. The next morning, her husband Denis called the ambulance after seeing his wife covered in blood, inside their home in the Talitsa, Sverdlovsk region.
A police source confirmed the baby had been put into the washing machine, and a murder investigation has been launched.

Investigators revealed on Monday night that the helicopter on which Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven other people died was not equipped with crash-proof voice and data recorders. The Sikorsky S-76B helicopter wasn’t required to have the black boxes, National Transportation Safety Board member Jennifer Homendy said at the agency’s first briefing since the accident.
The pilot of the aircraft, Ara Zibayan requested permission to climb to avoid a cloud layer and then made a descending turn and struck a hillside, Homendy said. An air-traffic controller radioed back to the pilot asking him what he planned to do and there was no reply.

It has been claimed that Kobe Bryant and his wife Vanessa Bryant had a deal not to fly together in a helicopter. The NBA legend was killed in a helicopter crash with eight other people at the weekend, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Maria Onore. According to People, Vanessa always refused to join her husband when he used helicopters for the convenience of getting around Los Angeles. A source said Kobe, 41, only ever used Ara Zobayan as pilot.

In the wake of Kobe Bryant's untimely death, former NBA star, Kendrick Perkins, has been moved to squash off his beef with basketballer, Kevin Durant. The 35-year-old former Oklahoma City Thunder star has offered a public apology to Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant over their fall out on Twitter earlier this month.
He wrote in a tweet: 'Just wanted to tell you I Love you my brother and whatever I did to hurt you I’m sorry bro and hope you forgive me!!! I love you bro real Talk! @KDTrey5.'

Samatta becomes first Tanzanian to play in EPL

Tanzanians are over the moon after national football team captain Mbwana Samatta sealed a transfer move from KRC Genk to Aston Villa in the English Premier League On Tuesday,21st 2020.
Samatta was playing in Belgium before his move and wasalso the captain for his team which won the Belgian title last season and where finished as the top scorer in the league.
He represented Tanzania at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and is thereigning holder of the Ebony Shoe – the prize awarded to the best African player in Belgium.
Mbwana Samatta becomes the first player from Tanzania to sign a deal with a team in the English Premeir League.

University of Connecticut pays tribute to Gianna Bryant by making her a custom jersey and saving her a seat on their bench

The University of Connecticut's women basketball team paid tribute to 13-year-old Giana Maria Onore Bryant by making her a custom jersey and saving her a spot on their player seats at last night's game. Gigi had dreams of playing for the squad when she graduated high school. She was a huge UConn fan who dreamed of playing for the Huskies one day.

Friday 31 January 2020

Thursday 30 January 2020

Wednesday 29 January 2020

Tuesday 28 January 2020