Welcome to Olamama's blog!!!: August 2016

Wednesday, 31 August 2016

Study shows one glass of wine a day cuts a woman's chance of conceiving by 18% in a year

One large glass of wine a day slashes a woman’s chance of conceiving, research shows.
Experts believe that too much alcohol interrupts the female natural cycle and may also damage the egg. But they say women can still drink small amounts when trying for a baby as there is no evidence the odd glass hampers fertility. Danish researchers studied 6,120 women from aged 21 to 45 who were trying to conceive, from June 2007 to January 2016. They all completed questionnaires on how often they had alcohol and exactly what they drank.
The results published in the BMJ show that women who had at least a 250ml glass a day – equivalent to 14 servings a week - were 18 per cent less likely to conceive over a year.

Apple has warned that future investment by multinationals in Europe could be hit after it was ordered to pay a record-breaking €13bn (£11bn) in back taxes to Ireland. The world’s largest company was presented with the huge bill after the European commission ruled that a sweetheart tax deal between Apple and the Irish tax authorities amounted to illegal state aid. The commission said the deal allowed Apple to pay a maximum tax rate of just 1%. In 2014, the tech firm paid tax at just 0.005%. The usual rate of corporation tax in Ireland is 12.5%.
“Member states cannot give tax benefits to selected companies – this is illegal under EU state aid rules,” said the European competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, whose investigation of Apple’s complex tax dealings has taken three years.

A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to ten years in prison and 2,000 lashes for expressing his atheism on Twitter. The 28-year-old reportedly refused to repent, insisting what he wrote reflected his beliefs and that he had the right to express them. The hardline Islamic state’s religious police in charge of monitoring social networks found more than 600 tweets denying the existence of God, ridiculing Koranic verses, accusing all prophets of lies and saying their teaching fuelled hostilities. The court also fined him around £4,000.
He was sentenced under a controversial law that defines atheism as “terrorism”.
In 2014 the late King Abdullah issued a string of royal decrees aimed at clamping down on all forms of political dissent and protests that could “harm public order”.
Article one of the new provisions defined terrorism as “calling for atheist thought in any form, or calling into question the fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which this country is based”.

Aero Contractors Airlines suspends scheduled services in Nigeria

Aero Contractors Airlines, Nigeria’s second largest commercial carrier, has announced the suspension of its scheduled services beginning from Thursday September 1, 2016.
Confirming this in a statement signed by the carrier’s management on Wednesday, Aero stated that the suspension was part of the strategic business realignment to reposition the airline and return it to profitability.
It stated that this “business decision”, which is a result of the current economic situation in the country, had forced some other airlines to suspend operations or pull out of Nigeria.
The management of the carrier said the airline had faced grave challenges in the past six months which impacted its business and by extension the scheduled services operations.

President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil has been impeached by senate

The Senate on Wednesday impeached Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s first female president, and removed her from office for the rest of her term, the capstone of a power struggle that has consumed the nation for months and toppled one of the hemisphere’s most powerful political parties. The Senate voted 61 to 20 to convict Ms. Rousseff on charges of manipulating the federal budget in an effort to conceal the nation’s mounting economic problems. But the final removal of Ms. Rousseff, who was suspended in May to face trial, was much more than a judgment of guilt on any charge. It was a verdict on her leadership and the slipping fortunes of Latin America’s largest country.

England women’s footballer fatally hit by train

Zoe Tynan, 18, who played for Everton and Manchester City before joining FA Women’s Premier League side Fylde ahead of the new season, was hit by a train and pronouced dead at the scene. Flowers have been laid in her memory at West Allerton station in Liverpool where the England U19 player is believed to have been killed. A statement from British Transport Police said officers were called to the station at around 4.15pm on Tuesday to reports of a person being struck by a train.
They said an 18-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene and the woman’s family has been informed and the death is not being treated as suspicious.
Her club issued a statement for Miss Tynan, from Mossley Hill, Liverpool, who began her career at the age of six at Liverpool Feds before moving onto Everton’s Centre of Excellence, spending six years there before moving to Manchester City last summer.

EPL week 2 result

Suicide bomber attacks Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan

A suspected suicide bomber rammed the gates of the Chinese embassy in the Kyrgyz capital Bishek on Tuesday, killing himself and wounding three others, officials said. An Interior Ministry spokesman said the car exploded inside the compound and quoted Deputy Prime Minister Janysh Razakov as describing the blast as “a terrorist act.”
Police, who cordoned off the building and the adjacent area, and the GKNB state security service said they were investigating the incident, which occurred around 1000 local time (0400 GMT). Authorities in Kyrgyzstan, a mostly Muslim former Soviet republic of 6 million people, routinely detain suspected Islamist militants accused of being linked to the Islamic State, which actively recruits from Central Asia.
An anti-Chinese militant group made up of ethnic Uighurs is also active in the region. In 2014, Kyrgyz border guards killed 11 people believed to be members of that group who had illegally crossed the Chinese-Kyrgyz border.

Source: Reuters

Mother kills daughter by shoving crucifix down her throat while claiming she was possessed

Juanita has been charged with homicide

A mother of Oklahoma, was arrested after police found her daughter dead. Officers were sent to the home in the 1500 block of N. McKinley Ave., for a welfare check of a 33-year-old woman. Officers who arrived at the home, found the 33-year-old woman lying on the floor with a large crucifix on her chest. The woman was identified as Geneva Gomez. She had apparent head and neck trauma. Police also found her mother, Juanita Gomez, 50, inside the home. Juanita told police that she killed her daughter by shoving a crucifix and a religious medallion down her throat.

A Colorado man has been jailed after being accused of the attempted murder of his 2-year-old son, who cops say he tried to kill by intentionally crashing his car. Police said 29-year-old Nathan Weitzel placed his toddler son, Isaiah, into his car on August 21 after buckling his own seatbelt, but not his son's. Weitzel then allegedly crashed the car into several other vehicles in an attempt to kill his son. Fortunately, Isaiah survived the accident but suffered life-threatening injuries, including a ripped a muscle in his neck that's left him in a neck brace, a head injury that required 20 to 30 stitches he also had to get surgery on his leg, and received five screws in his knee. Isaiah is also in a plaster cast from the waist down.

44-year-old Englishman, Ben Ryan who led Fiji's Rugby team to Olympic glory in Rio and delivered the island nation's first ever medal has been rewarded with three acres of land, he has also been honoured with a traditional chief's name, Ratu Peni Raiyani Latianara. Fiji's gold medal, the first in the history of the small island nation, sent shockwaves around the country - catapulting Ryan to the level of national hero. Ryan has already received the Companion of the Order of Fiji - the highest honorary title that can be awarded under the Order - from Fijian president Jioji Konrote.

Isabelle on bed at the motel

Isabelle Graham, 28, of Scotland, lost her job after the photos showed the boy kissing her and sharing a bed. Graham was a French teacher at the Whitburn Academy in West Lothian, when she reportedly had sex with the teenage boy on prom night while she was drunk.
According to prosecutors, the teacher spent three hours at a Travelodge motel in Edinburgh, with her 17-year-old student. They were drinking alcohol, shared a bed and engaged in sexual activity. Graham, who is a devout Christian, claims that she is the victim of rape. The teacher said that she was saving herself for marriage and she has no recollection of the night.

Cows in India are getting glow-in-the-dark paint for their horns to stop them causing road traffic accidents

Police in India have been applying temporary stickers which glow in the dark tocows' horns in an attempt to cut down on road accidents. The bizarre measures are the latest effort to combat the growing problem ofmotorists crashing into the animals as they cross roads at night. Cows are considered sacred in India and will often be found wandering into the middle of busy roads. As a result they become a severe traffic hazard, with severe or even fatal crashes occurring as they mill freely through the countryside. Traffic police in one district of Madhya Pradesh state have taken to sticking orange radium reflective bands on the horns of 300 cows and bulls to help drivers spot them, reports AFP.

Chukwudi Oweniwe

A twenty-two year-old Student of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo (RUGIPO) in Ondo State Nigeria, Chukwudi Oweniwe has been arrested for allegedly killing his girlfriend, Miss Nifemi Adeyeye in a bush at Ilu-Abo, in Akure North local government area of Ondo State early this month. Chukwudi and Nifemi were both Part-Time students of the department of Science and Laboratory Technology (SLT). The suspect, who lives in Ayede-Ogbese was said to have invited the deceased to his place from their school and subsequently lured her into a bush in Ilu-Abo and killed her. He was alleged to have performed some ritual activities on her late girlfriend.

Twenty six more cases of locally-transmitted Zika virus have been confirmed in Singapore, the city-state's Ministry of Health (MOH) said late Tuesday. With 56 cases confirmed Monday, the total number of Zika virus infections in Singapore has risen to 82. Seven patients who are still symptomatic, and potentially infectious, are being treated at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, the MOH said Monday. The rest have fully recovered.
"They are not known to have traveled to Zika-affected areas recently, and are thus likely to have been infected in Singapore," a statement released by the ministry said.
The majority of the 82 reported cases are foreign construction workers. On Monday, the MOH finished testing all of the workers on the construction site who had shown symptoms of fever and rash. Workers staying in dormitories found in areas of concern were also screened.

More than 300 wild reindeer have been killed after they were struck by lightning at a nature park in southern Norway. The deaths were linked to a thunderstorm which battered the Hardangervidda region on Friday. Gamekeepers said they had already counted the lightning-charred bodies of 323 reindeer, which a spokesman described as an "unusually high" death toll. Knut Nylend, a spokesman for the Norwegian Nature Inspectorate, said the reindeer probably died in such high numbers because they were standing close to each other.
It is the second time this month that a large group of animals has been struck to death by lightning. On August 25th, 38 sheep died after they were hit by lightning in the Indian district of Kanchipuram.

Watch this video to see the 'dry swimming' competition at Rio!!!

Creativity at its best.....lol

Monday, 29 August 2016

Swiss fighter plane goes missing in central Swiss Alps

The Swiss Defence Department says an air force fighter jet has gone missing in the Alps of central Switzerland. The air force F/A-18C went missing on Monday afternoon near the Susten pass, east of Interlaken. The defence department says in a statement that searches are underway, and nothing was immediately known about the fate of the pilot. No further information was immediately provided. According to parent company Boeing, the first F/A-18 Hornet built by McDonnell Douglas took flight in 1978 and became the first tactical aircraft designed to conduct both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions.

9 sexually transmitted diseases you need to know about

Taking care of your sexual health and that of your partner is important if you're going to enjoy a trouble-free sex life. Here is some info on some of the diseases you both need to be aware of:

1. HIV/AIDS
AIDS (Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is a syndrome caused by a virus called HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). The illness alters the immune system, making people much more vulnerable to infections and diseases

2. GONORRHOEA
Gonorrhoea is one of the most dangerous sexually transmitted infections and can cause lifelong problems if it isn't nipped in the bud. It is a venereal disease involving inflammatory discharge from the urethra or vagina.

Turkey opened one of the world's biggest suspension bridges on Friday, the latest mega-project in a $200 billion building spree that President Tayyip Erdogan hopes will secure his place in history. The bridge creates a new link across the Bosphorus Strait, which divides Asia and Europe. President Erdogan oversaw a ceremony inaugurating the $3 billion Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, which is touted by its Turko-Italian developers as the world's broadest suspension bridge at 58.4 metres (192 feet) wide. The toll bridge, spanning 1,408 metres (4,620 feet) over the Bosphorus, is built in the style of New York's Brooklyn Bridge and boasts pylons higher than the Eiffel Tower. It features 10 lanes, including two rail lines. At 322 metres (1,056 feet), officials say the bridge's towers are also the tallest in the world.

Church members storm mortuary with the hope of resurrecting the dead!

There was drama at a Kenyan hospital - Webuye county hospital on Saturday when faithfuls from Temple of God church stormed the hospital's mortuary "to resurrect the dead".
According to five members of the church of more than 200 members, they had been sent by the Holy Spirit to pray for the sick, heal them and resurrect the dead. Led by a man who called himself prophet Daniel Wechuli, the three women and two men squad claimed to have healed several people through their prayers, that they have led healing prayers for people living with disabilities and they all got healed.
"We have been moving to various hospitals praying for the sick and most of then have been healed by faith," Wechuli said.

A man has been arrested and charged after allegedly putting hydrochloric acid inside what is understood to be a lubricant dispenser at a gay club in Sydney's north-west. Police said the 62-year-old man went into the Bridge Street premises in Rydalmere on Saturday, filling a dispenser inside a room with the highly corrosive acid. According to ABC news , the venue was the Aarows Club, which describes itself as 'Sydney's gay and bi social club' with 'three levels of adult adventure'. Items in the room had been fitted with alarms after they had previously been tampered with in a similar way, police said. Security stopped the man before police arrested him, officers said.
Hydrochloric acid is a strong, corrosive acid which can produce burns, ulcers and scars when put into contact with skin. The man has been charged with a range of offences, including administering poison with the intent to cause injury, distress or pain, and malicious damage.

Meet the 40-year-old man who is addicted to sleeping in graves

Philip Mensah, is a 40-year-old man from the New Juaben Municipality of the Eastern Region of Ghana who has shocked people with his bizarre lifestyle. The man revealed that he has spent 30 years with the dead in their damaged tombs, and according to him, he is taking all that step so as to gain spiritual powers. A report on Adom News reveals that Mr. Mensah made the claim during an interview with Brty Fm, a Koforidua-based radio station. In an interview, he revealed that in his quest to become spiritually powerful, he ended up under the tutelage of Togbe Azakli, a spiritualist at Anum Boso in the region, who ordered him to vacate his original place of abode to the broken tomb. He disclosed that “my desire is to gain powers that will enable me to discover hidden secrets like how to tell when one will die, one’s future, how to retrieve stolen items, how to make spiritual money, among many others, made me pay heed to the advice of Togbe Azakli who directed me to spend time with the dead in their broken tombs to gain the spiritual powers that I have been wishing for over the past years.”

Angry dad 'crushes daughter's £10k Audi with a digger after catching her in it with a boy'

An angry dad allegedly crushed his daughter's beautiful £10,000 Audi with a mechanical digger after 'catching her in it with a boy'. Mike Card reportedly got behind the controls of a massive digger and smashed it into the roof of the red sports car. Although the exact details of what his daughter Ashlyn is alleged to have done are not clear, her brother Kaylor posted the video to Facebook with the caption:
"Yep! When a dad has to prove a point! #DADDYNOTHAPPY " All I can say is Brandon Anderson won't be in this car anymore!
More pictures after the cut

A pest controller almost got strangled by a python while filming a reality TV show in Australia. Craig Freeman, from Birmingham, was shooting for the series Deadliest Pests Down Under. His face went bright red as he was slowly strangled by the snake in the frightening footage. Yet the desperate dad managed to slither free. Craig, who runs the company Stop That Pest, was selected last year along with eight other Brits to experience pest control, Aussie style.
Craig told the Birmingham Mail: “I kept thinking of myself on the news, getting strangled by a python on TV. But I thought to myself that I can’t let the Brummies down back home. I went to grab it and it went for me. It throttled me.”
Watch the video after the cut

A 42 year-old woman, Mrs. Mary Matthew, has been paraded by the Ondo State Police command in Nigeria for allegedly maltreating her late younger sister’s 5 year old daughter, Precious Michael. Mary who is a mother of six children, was accused of chaining and caging the little Precious in a kiosk for five months for allegedly being possessed and suffering from (HIV). Mary, an indigene of Enugu State but a resident in Akure was said to have traveled to their home town around last year December, when she was informed about the death of her younger sister and returned to her base with Precious. It was learnt that Precious was caged, when Mary and her husband accused her of being spiritually possessed and also suffering from HIV.

A judge sentenced a Georgia man to 40 years in prison Wednesday for throwing scalding water on a gay couple sleeping in an apartment, leaving them with severe burns that required surgery. Jurors deliberated for about 90 minutes before finding Martin Blackwell, 48, guilty of eight counts of aggravated battery and two counts of aggravated assault in the February attack on Anthony Gooden and Marquez Tolbert. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk said the evidence was overwhelming and that Blackwell had behaved in a soulless and malicious way. He noted that it "takes a long time" for a pot of water to boil.
"You had so many outs where the voice of reason could have taken over," the judge told Blackwell, who had faced up to 80 years in prison.
Prosecutors said it was a vicious, premeditated attack. Tolbert testified that after pouring hot water on them, Blackwell grabbed him as he jumped and screamed in pain and told him: "Get out of my house with all that gay."

A grandmother with a debilitating growth weighing the same as a baby hippo, has undergone pioneering surgery to remove it. Charlene Branham had been trapped in her home for ten years because of the 112lbs (over 50Kg) mass on her stomach, which hung between her legs. The 40-year-old could barely walk and remained a prisoner in her home, unable to work and relying on her mother Debbie to look after her. But she has been now been given a new lease of life after a surgeon, specializing in large tumors, operated to remove the ginormous growth. Called a penduculated pannus, the condition is caused when abdominal fat becomes distended and hangs down dangerously below the body.
Charlene, from Aurora, Missouri, became so disabled she could barely move and could not find clothes to fit and resorted to wearing a bed sheet like a toga. Desperate for help, Charlene spent years by herself in her bedroom scared of being seen, and her weight soared to 550lbs (250Kg). She first noticed the growth in 2005, but had often got cysts on her skin, so ignored it.
More graphic pictures after the cut

Truck driver kills pedestrian while playing ‘Pokemon Go’

A Japanese truck driver playing Pokemon Go while driving hit two women, killing one and injuring the other, in Japan’s first death related to the Nintendo Co craze. The driver said he had been distracted by the game after his arrest for negligent driving following the accident on Wednesday evening, a spokesman for the Tokushima prefectural police said.
“The driver is still in custody. No decision has been made yet on whether to proceed with a prosecution,” he added
A spokesman for Niantic Inc, which developed Pokemon GO jointly with Nintendo affiliate Pokemon Company, said the company had added a pop-up to the Pokemon Go screen when it detected an increase in speed asking for confirmation the user was not driving. He didn’t say whether the developer would take further steps to guard against accidents. A spokesman for Nintendo offered condolences to the family of the dead woman.

The Russian Paralympic Committee has launched an appeal in the Swiss federal court against the court of arbitration for sport’s decision to uphold a blanket banon their athletes competing at next month’s Rio Games.
“The appeal has been launched in the Swiss court,” the Interfax news agency quoted the RFC president, Vladimir Lukin, as saying on Friday.
The appeal will be held on Monday. This week Cas rejected an RPC appeal against the ban issued by the International Paralympic Committee.

Police station in Turkish town hit with car bomb killing at least 11 and leaving 78 injured

(C)AFP

At least 11 police officers have been killed and 78 wounded in a truck bomb attack at a police headquarters in Cizre in southeastern Turkey, according to the local governor's office. The bomb was exploded at a checkpoint outside the headquarters on Friday, after the attackers failed to pass the guards there, state media said. The blast was followed by an armed battle between the police and attackers. Predominantly-Kurdish Cizre is in Turkey's Sirnak province and it borders both Syria and Iraq.
More pictures after the cut

France's top administrative court on Friday overturned a ban on burkinis in a Mediterranean beach resort, effectively meaning that towns can no longer issue bans on the swimsuits that have divided the country and brought world attention to its fraught relationship with Muslims. The ruling by the Council of State specifically concerns a ban on the Muslim garment in the Riviera town of Villeneuve-Loubet, but the binding decision is expected to impact all the 30 or so French resort municipalities that have issued similar decrees. The bans grew increasingly controversial as images circulated online of some Muslim women being ordered to remove body-concealing garments on French Riviera beaches.

The head of the International Paralympic Committee said the organisation’s firm anti-doping stance has been vindicated after the court of arbitration for sport dismissed Russia’s appeal against their exclusion from next month’s Paralympic Games in Rio. The president of the IPC, Sir Philip Craven, expressed his satisfaction after a Cas panel found that the decision to suspend the Russian Paralympic Committee on 7 August – as exclusively revealed by the Observer – because of evidence of state-sponsored doping was neither disproportionate nor in violation of procedural rules. He added that he hopes the ban will act as a catalyst for change in Russia.
“We are greatly encouraged that the Cas panel has upheld the IPC governing board’s unanimous decision to hold the Russian Paralympic Committee accountable for its membership responsibilities and obligations,” Craven said. “Today’s decision underlines our strong belief that doping has absolutely no place in Paralympic sport and further improves our ability to ensure fair competition and a level playing field for all Para athletes around the world.”

Kenya’s outgoing presidents to declare country’s assets before leaving

President Uhuru Kenyatta

An outgoing president will be required to declare Kenya’s assets before leaving office courtesy of a proposed law. The Assumption of Office of President (Amendment) Bill, 2016, set to be introduced in Parliament soon, will compel the retiring Head of State to tell the citizens how rich or broke the country is. He or she will be made to tell the country how much his Government has accumulated in assets and liabilities during his tenure, and future economic prospects as he leaves office or seeks an additional term, according to the proposals seen by The Standard.

At least 13 killed, 36 wounded as gunman attacks American University in Afghanistan

At least 13 people were killed and 36 others were wounded when gunmen attacked the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, Afghan officials said early Thursday. Approximately 12 hours after the attack began Wednesday evening, Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said that about 700 students had been rescued from the university compound. The State Department announced Thursday no Americans were killed or wounded. Details on the victims were not immediately available, but Hedayatullah Stanikzai, an official with the Ministry of Public Health, said a guard employed by the university was among the dead. Reuters reported that both gunmen involved in the assault were also killed.

Two friends of a professor who allegedly pushed him 80 feet off a cliff into a quarry because they thought they were in his will have been charged with murder. Danielle Geier, 32, and George Ishler, 39, thought they both featured in Ronald Bettig’s last will and testament.
According to the New York Daily News, cops found the body of the media studies teacher in a quarry in Centre County, Pennsylvania, US, on Wednesday. The 56-year-old, who taught at Pennsylvania State University and was referred to as "the nutty professor" by those who didn't know him, and was friends with the pair. Geier and Ishler were "known drug users" according to police. They are accused of killing Bettig for the benefits, and authorities said Geier was sharing his home, according to the Centre Daily Times.

Real Madrid and Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo was named UEFA Best Player of Europe following the Champions League draw ceremony on Thursday. European football's governing body whittled a shortlist of 10 down to Real Madrid duo Gareth Bale and Ronaldo and Atletico Madrid star Antoine Griezmann. Ronaldo, who won after the 2013-14 season, joined Barcelona star Lionel Messi as the second player to win the award twice. Ronaldo captained Portugal to glory at Euro 2016, when he was taken off injured during the final, and scored the winning shootout penalty for Real Madrid as they won the Champions League for an 11th time.
"Of course, I feel happy because it was an unbelievable season," Ronaldo said. "But it wouldn't be fair if I didn't mention these two amazing players [Bale and Griezmann]. Griezmann, I am sorry for your loss to Portugal in the final, but you are an amazing player. It was an unbelievable season."

Man released from jail after 25 years as DNA evidence finds him NOT guilty of crime

A Philadelphia man walked free after 25 years behind bars as DNA evidence proved he did not rape and murder his neighbor. Anthony Wright, 44, was 20 years old when he was convicted in the death of 77-year-old Louise Talley in the Nicetown neighborhood. Authorities found her naked body on the floor of her home in October 1991. Talley had been raped and stabbed 10 times with a kitchen knife in the back, chest and neck. Wright was taken into custody the following day. He was serving a term of life without parole when new DNA testing showed another man had raped Talley. Authorities inspected sperm found inside Talley's body and found none of Wright's DNA. It was Ronnie Byrd, a former crack addict from Nicetown, who assaulted her, tests showed in 2014.

A 14-year-old Pennsylvania boy is accused of fatally shooting his grandmother because he didn't want to go to school. Hunter R. Reeser, of Harborcreek Township, is being charged as an adult with first-degree murder. Authorities say he shot 60-year-old Sandra Orton with a .22-caliber rifle on Tuesday. He then called her husband and claimed he found her wounded.
But he later called 911 and confessed to killing her, police said. Cops found Orton dead in her vehicle, shot in the head. Reeser later told authorities that he didn't want to go to a school meeting.
In Pennsylvania, children must be charged as adults in murder or homicide cases.
Defense attorneys can later try to move the charges to juvenile court. Erie County prosecutors say they plan to oppose that. Reeser is being held without bond.

Wednesday, 24 August 2016

Hundreds of Boko Haram insurgents allegedly killed as as Nigerian Air Force intensifies aerial bombings

The Nigerian Air Force on Tuesday said it killed about 300 Boko Haram members during a recent aerial bombardments of terrorist locations in the North-East of Nigeria. The Director of Public Relations and Information for the Air Force, Ayodele Famuyiwa, said in a statement emailed to Premium Times that the killing of the terrorists recorded “another major success in the on-going counter-insurgency and counter terrorism operations against the Boko Haram Terrorist (BHT) sect in the North East.”
Mr. Famuyiwa said, “The current phase of intensified air operations over Northern Borno paid-off on the night of 19 August 2016 when the NAF, during an air attack, killed about 300 BHTs who had gathered to hold a meeting at a location between Malam Fatori and own troops location at Kangarwa.

US women national team goalkeeper Hope Solo has been suspended from the national team for six months, the U.S. Soccer Federation announced on Wednesday. According to SI's Grant Wahl, Solo's contract with U.S. Soccer was also terminated. Per Rich Nichols, executive director of the USWNT Players Association, an appeal will be filed claiming a 'violation of Ms. Solo's First Amendment Rights.' The player was suspended for 'conduct that is counter to the organization's principles,' a statement from U.S. Soccer read. Solo was suspended for 30 days last year for conduct at the team's training camp. She was also charged with domestic violence after a 2014 incident.
The suspension is effective immediately and comes due to her comments at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where she called Sweden 'cowards' after the U.S. fell to the eventual silver medalists in the quarterfinal round.

UPDATE on Italy earthquake: Death toll rises to 159

A powerful earthquake devastated a string of mountainous towns in central Italy on Wednesday, trapping residents under piles of rubble, killing at least 159 people according to the country’s civil protection agency. The quake struck in the early hours of the morning when most residents were asleep, razing homes and buckling roads in a cluster of communities some 140 km (85 miles) east of Rome. The army was mobilized to help with special heavy equipment and the treasury released 235 million euros ($265 million) of emergency funds. At the Vatican, Pope Francis cancelled part of his general audience to pray for the victims.

This puppy swallowed a 20cm steak knife and survived

This incredible X-ray shows a massive 20cm-long steak knife swallowed by a puppy - which miraculously survived. Vets were stunned when scans revealed six-month-old Staffordshire bull-terrier Lexi had scoffed the deadly serrated blade. Her owners had initially sought help because they thought she had a tummy upset but things took a dramatic turn and Lexi was rushed into surgery. Skilled vets at the Animal Referral Hospital (ARH), in Sydney, Australia, spent 45 minutes painstakingly inching the blade back up Lexis's oesophagus and free of her vital organs. ARH medical specialist Dr Jody Braddock said: "I've never seen anything like it, we knew that Lexi's best chance for survival would be to remove the knife as soon as possible before it could cause more damage.

Residents in central Italy were waking up to scenes of devastation this morning after a strong earthquake rocked the heart of the country (You can read the story here). At least 20 people were killed in the 6.2 magnitude earthquake quake, which sent residents fleeing their homes and running into the streets. A family of four were also trapped under the rubble and showing no signs of life. The shallow quake, estimated to have struck after 3:30am at a depth of 6 miles, was felt across a broad section of central Italy, including the capital Rome where people in homes in the historic centre felt a long swaying followed by aftershocks.

Tuesday, 23 August 2016

Magnitude 6.1 earthquake hits central Italy leaving at least 6 dead

A strong earthquake struck central Italy early Wednesday, levelling buildings in several towns as residents slept. One mayor reported a family of four trapped under the debris without signs of life and another said simply: "The town isn't here anymore." The magnitude 6.1 quake struck at 3:36 a.m. and was felt across a broad swath of central Italy, including the capital Rome where residents felt a long swaying followed by aftershocks. First images of damage showed debris in the street and some collapsed buildings in towns and villages that dot much of the Umbrian countryside.

Speedo USA will no longer sponsor Ryan Lochte following revelations that the swimmer fabricated a story about being robbed at gunpoint during the Rio Olympics. The swimwear brand announced the news Monday morning, stating that the company “cannot condone behavior that is counter to the values this brand has long stood for,” and saying that it hopes the U.S. swimmer “learns from this experience.”
Lochte admitted Saturday that he exaggerated a story about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro with three other American swimmers, while authorities debunked the whole account as an outright lie. Brazilian sources told ABC News on Thursday that surveillance video from that night actually showed one of the swimmers fighting with a gas station security guard and causing damage to a restroom.

Bishop Daniel Obinim, the founder and leader of the International Godsway Church said that he was forced to discipline the two after God revealed to him in a vision during prophecy time in his church that the two had not only been engaging in amorous acts but also tried without success to abort a pregnancy which resulted from that. The pastor broke his silence when the video which shows him beating two members of his church for fornication went viral (You can read the story/watch the video here)

Some distasteful acts are better left in the secret, unless you are ready to face the public’s fury!
A man who allegedly live-streamed himself raping dogs was left naked and beaten in the street after an animal vigilante group lured him into a trap. The unnamed man also reportedly charged customers 50 RMB (£5) to beat the dogs before having sex with them, while broadcasting the abusive content live to thousands of viewers. Dog lovers first noticed the horrific streams three weeks ago, and tracked the man to southwestern China's Sichuan province, where they reportedly found him running a dog brothel.

Meet the little boy who suffers from an extremely rare condition that makes his hands and feet look like they're turning into trees. The body of seven-year-old Ripon Sarker is covered in scaly warts because he suffers from the condition known as 'epidermodysplasia verruciformis'. Youngster Ripon, from Thakurgaon, Bangladesh, was only admitted to hospital for the first time this month because his family couldn't afford treatment. The young boy was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital on August 20.
His dad Mahendra Das said: "They haven't carried out tests on him. Physicians say they will look into this matter before treatment."

Chinese widower, 70, buys replica model of his dead wife

A Chinese man identified as Zhang who became devastated after he lost his wife of 40 years, bought this silicon model which cost him $2,412 to replace her. According to Zhang, the spirit of his wife lives inside the silicon model. He says since his wife's death, the silicon model has supported him emotionally. After living one year with the silicon, Zhang has instituted a lawsuit against the manufacturers of the silicon model after he discovered wires coming out of it.
More pictures after the cut

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