Welcome to Olamama's blog!!!: April 2018

Monday, 30 April 2018

Man steals bike after being released from jail because he was too tired to walk home

A man who spent time in prison did not learn his lesson and stole a bike because he did not feel like walking, according to police in Louisiana. The Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office said that at around 12:00 a.m., on Wednesday, police dispatchers received a call from the Avoyelles Sheriff’s Office in reference to assisting a recently released inmate in getting to his home. This is a courtesy that police departments do sometimes when there is no one else to give the released inmate a ride.

A popular British cartoon has been removed from one of China's most popular social media platforms, with state media saying that the character is being used subversively. Social media users in the country noticed video clips of the cartoon were being removed on Saturday, and on Monday, state newspaper Global Times said that the #PeppaPig hashtag had been removed from the Douyin video website, while searches for "Peppa Pig" on the site produced no results.

A Florida man accidentally shot his wife twice after he mistook her for a burglar in their home, police said. Nathan and Allison Simmons, both 31, thought someone broke into their Orlando home Wednesday but went to sleep after finding out it was cleared, Winter Garden police said.

Kenyan authorities in Narok County, a town west of Nairobi, claim that night prayers organised by Churches are to blame for the rising statistics of early pregnancies among school going teenagers in the area. Citizen TV reported on Sunday that Narok County Commissioner George Natembeya issued a ban on night prayers after linking them to early motherhood. He told the broadcaster that in March 2018, 17 girls from Suswa Girls Secondary School in Narok County were found to be pregnant.

A football fan managed to get around his stadium ban... by hiring a CRANE to watch his team from outside the ground. The die-hard Denizlispor supporter is serving a one-year suspension from entering the stadium in Turkey. So, he rented a cherry-picker instead, taking in the clash from a great height, with an astonishing view. The fan celebrated atop the crane during the recent game against Gaziantepspor, before police eventually intervened.
More pictures after the cut

A football club in Argentina have shelled out to create a spectacular customised version of the famous Sistine Chapel ceiling, with Diego Maradona in the role of God and Lionel Messi as Adam. Club Sportivo Pereyra in Buenos Aires spent roughly $20,000 on the enormous fresco, which covers the ceiling of their sports hall and was painted by local artist Santiago Barbeito.

Arsene Wenger thanked Manchester United for a "very classy" reception on his last visit to Old Trafford, as Alex Ferguson presented him with a gift before Sunday's 2-1 loss. Wenger was greeted by a big ovation from the home fans and was then handed a metal vase in a box by his long-time rival in a friendly reunion before kickoff.
The Frenchman still left Old Trafford with another loss after Marouane Fellaini's late winner, but said he appreciated the welcome.

T-Mobile agrees $26bn mega-merger with Sprint

US telecoms giant T-Mobile has agreed to buy its rival Sprint in a $26bn (£18.9bn) deal. The merger of America's third and fourth largest mobile carriers is designed to create a more competitive firm with about 130 million customers. However, the deal is expected to attract regulatory scrutiny over its potential impact on customer prices. T-Mobile boss John Legere said the new firm would spend $40bn on building a 5G mobile network in the next three years.

A Brazilian football fan tattooed his team's home shirt on his body. Jose Mauricio dos Anjos, a Flamengo superfan, has spent 90 hours in agony over the past year to get Flamengo’s red and black uniform inked on his body. After 32 painful sessions, the replica of the club’s 2015 home shirt was completed on Friday.
The 33-year-old told Vice Brazil: "People ask me if I don’t find it strange that I’m always wearing a Flamengo shirt. And I just don’t. To me, it’s normal."

North Korea promised to close its atomic test site next month and invite US weapons experts to the country as Donald Trump expressed optimism about securing a nuclear deal in his summit with the secretive regime. The reported pledge from the North’s leader Kim Jong Un follows weeks of whirlwind diplomacy that saw Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agree to pursue the complete denuclearisation of the peninsula during a historic summit on Friday.

Barcelona have won LaLiga for the 25th time in their history after beating Deportivo La Coruna 4-2 today. The Catalans have completely dominated Spain's top flight this season and completed the job with four games to go thanks to a goal from Philippe Coutinho and a Lionel Messi hat-trick at the Riazor.

Australian scientists have discovered what they believe is the world’s oldest spider, a creature that had most likely outlived the previous record holder by about 15 years. In a study published in the journal Pacific Conservation Biology and cited by Phys.org, a team of researchers led by Curtin University doctoral student Leanda Mason analyzed a female Giaus Villosus trapdoor spider that had recently died during a separate population study. The spider, which was given the name “Number 16,” is believed to have died at the age of 43, making it 15 years older than a 28-year-old tarantula from Mexico that was once considered the world’s oldest spider.

Chris Coleman has left Sunderland and the chairman Ellis Short has agreed to sell the club on a dramatic day at the Stadium of Light. Sunderland first confirmed Coleman had been released from his contract, following their drop into League One. Minutes later they announced a deal had been struck to sell to a group led by Stewart Donald, the chairman of National League side Eastleigh.

By now, most of us are probably aware we don't treat our bras with the care and reverence they deserve. After all, these are clever pieces of technology which serve a number of functions. Yet, when it comes to our bras, we often can't seem to get it right, despite spending a fair amount of money on them. For starters, seven in ten women are walking around, sporting a bra which is in completely the wrong size . This, aside from not looking great, can also lead to health problems such as back pain and even restricted breathing.

Nine students have been stabbed to death and 12 others were injured after a former student attacked them outside a school in northern China. The former student allegedly stabbed them in a revenge plot after being bullied at the school in Shaanxi province. It took place outside the No3 Middle School in the rural area as classes were being dismissed for the evening.

Diego Maradona has left his position as coach of Al Fujairah after they missed out on automatic promotion from the United Arab Emirates' second division. The 57-year-old former Argentina international and World Cup winner had been in charge since May 2017. A 1-1 draw with Khorfakkan on Friday meant they could not finish higher than third in the table.
It was Maradona's second managerial spell in the UAE, after spending a year in charge of Al-Wasl. He also managed the Argentina national team from 2008 to 2010.

Kanye West wants album cover to feature surgeon who operated on his mom before she died

He's sparked a bit of controversy this week returning to social media after a nearly year-long hiatus.
And Kanye West revealed a series of tweets alluding to the cover of his new album, possibly featuring an unrelated mugshot of his late mother's final plastic surgeon Jan Adams.
The 40-year-old rapper shared a screen grab where he wrote in a text to collaborator Wes Lang that he wanted to 'forgive and stop hating'.

A fire broke out on Saturday in a high-rise that until recently had been called Trump Tower in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, engulfing much of the building in flames by early evening.
Footage on social media showed flames shooting out of the windows and smoke billowing from the 33-floor building, which is still under construction and had been labeled “Donald Trump’s Worst Deal” by The New Yorker magazine.

Malawi’s former president, Joyce Banda returned home today after four years of self-imposed exile, despite facing the threat of arrest over corruption allegations.

The United States has banned American firms from selling parts and software to China’s ZTE Corp for seven years, potentially devastating for the telecoms equipment maker and exacerbating tensions between the world’s two largest economies. The move, first reported by Reuters, comes at a time when the two countries have threatened each other with tens of billions of dollars in tariffs in recent weeks, fanning worries of a full blown trade war that threatens global supply chains as well as business investment plans.

Zimbabwe has followed Lesotho by legalizing the production of marijuana for medicinal and scientific purposes, making it the second African country to turn the drug into a source of revenue.
However, recreational use of the drug known in the country as ‘mbanje or dagga’ remains illegal.
A government notice by the health and child care minister, Dr David Parirenyatwa says individuals and corporations can apply for licenses to grow marijuana, whose production and possession had brought up to 12 years in prison.

Despite the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook makes $3Billion profit in 3-months

Facebook’s quarterly sales rose by over $3 billion despite the privacy breaching scandal. The company said that revenues rose to $11.9bn in the first three months of the year, compared to $8bn previously.
Founder, Mark Zuckerberg said: “despite facing important challenges, our community and business are off to a strong start in 2018. We are taking a broader view of our responsibility and investing to make sure our services are used for good. But we also need to keep building new tools to help people connect, strengthen our communities, and bring the world closer together.”

Rap sensation, Cardi B, is being sued for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and defamation by her former manager, Shaft, who discovered her. Shaft whose real name is Klenord Raphael claims in a new lawsuit that he began working with Cardi B in 2015 and was part of her rise in the music industry, before he was kicked out of the picture.

The shocking moment a Muslim man died as he bowed down to pray in a mosque in Jordan was captured on CCTV and has been shared online. In the video, the man is seen standing with other Muslim faithful, their hands clasped in prayer. The man soon kneels and bows while others were still standing and he remained in that position for the rest of the prayer.

A United States Postal Service employee is facing many years behind bars after failing to deliver thousands of pieces of mail, according to police in New York. The New York Police Department said that they arrested 53-year-old Aleksey Germash of Brooklyn after being accused of hoarding 17,000 pieces of mail in his car and home. Germash has been charged with delaying or detaining mail. If convicted, he faces up to 5 years in prison.

American rapper Bow Wow continues to threaten suicide and people are beginning to think it's his way of seeking attention. The 31-year-old keep writing suicidal posts on social media, threatening to take his life. Only days ago, he said he felt like jumping off a balcony (read here). Prior to that, he hinted at wanting to take his life. Now, he's at it again.

A nurse died on an American Airlines flight after suffering an embolism and passing out in the bathroom while the pilot refused to divert the plane despite an onboard doctor's pleas to land. Brittany Oswell was on the plane with her military husband Cory and were on their way home to South Carolina on April 15, 2016. They had been married for less than a year and they boarded a flight in Hawaii, where Cory was stationed in the military, at 8pm. Three hours into the flight, Brittany became "disoriented and dizzy".

School installs cry closet in the library "for stressed out students"

The University of Utah has a "Cry Closet" in their library for "stressed out students" who want to take a cry break. There are rules, however, for using the closet. One of them includes that you mustn't spend more than 10 minutes in there. According to the Twitter user who shared the story, it was invented by a student and cost nothing to the school body.

North and South Korea have announced an end to the Koread war and will sign a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War later this year, 65 years after hostilities ceased, the two countries announced in a joint declaration moments ago. The document, formally called the “Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification on the Korean Peninsula,” was revealed after a full day of meetings and a 30-minute private conversation in the past hour between Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in.

Chance the Rapper has refused to align with Kanye West and Donald Trump, even though he tweeted his support for Kanye. Following his tweet, Donald Trump took to Twitter to thank Kanye West, Chance, and Dr. Darrell Scott. But Chance quickly rejected Trump's thanks and explained his tweet. Chance explained that he supported Kanye West for saying he loves Trump only because Kanye is "family" and not because he agrees with his views.

The Iranian government has officially released a mobile messaging app in a bid to encourage users to abandon the currently banned Telegram messenger. Soroush, a homegrown app promoted by the Iranian government, boasts most of the features found in Telegram, a popular app that was used extensively as a way of communicating during 2017's anti-government protests.

US President Donald Trump tweeted support for the North American FIFA 2026 World Cup and hinted that nations who oppose it could face political repercussions.

“The U.S. has put together a STRONG bid w/ Canada & Mexico for the 2026 World Cup,” Trump tweeted. "It would be a shame if countries that we always support were to lobby against the U.S. bid. Why should we be supporting these countries when they don’t support us (including at the United Nations)?” he said.
Morocco is the only other nation bidding for the 2026 football showpiece against the combined North American bid.

Uber driver's lottery ticket tip leads to $140,000 jackpot

A Colorado Uber driver said a scratch-off lottery ticket he received as a tip from one of his passengers led to his winning $140,000. The Colorado Lottery said the Uber driver, identified as Lakewood resident James P., said a driver gave him a $5 Super Special Ultimate Bingo Scratch ticket as a tip and the ticket ended up winning him $30, which he used to buy six more scratch-off tickets.
"I kept winning these smaller amounts and just kept rolling it over and over into more tickets," James said. "I thought to myself, 'I'm never going to hit the end of these tickets'. It just kept going and going."

For a while, the public has suspected that American singer/actress Janelle Monae is queer but she never confirmed it. She has finally addressed her sexuality and admits that she's not straight. In an interview with Rolling Stone for its May cover, the 32-year-old said:
Being a queer black woman in America, someone who has been in relationships with both men and women, I consider myself to be a free-ass motherfucker.

Activists have voiced anger after state-of-the-art graphene technology developed by a UK university was supplied to an Israeli arms manufacturer. In October last year, engineering firm Versarien announced a collaboration agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to test a graphene-based material called Nanene in its aerospace composite materials.
Nanene was developed by researchers at the University of Manchester and its proprietary rights were obtained by Versarien in 2014 when it bought an 85 percent stake in 2-DTech Limited, a company spun out from the university's graphene research.

Bounce, an E.W. Scripps Co. TV network focused on African-American programming, dropped “The Cosby Show” reruns from its schedule after a jury found Bill Cosby guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman.
“Effective immediately, Bounce is pulling ‘The Cosby Show,”’ spokesman Jim Weiss said in an email.
Bounce, which calls itself the first African-American broadcast network, was a holdout airing Cosby programs after years of allegations of sexual assault. The channel, co-founded by Martin Luther King III, still had “The Cosby Show” in its lineup earlier on Thursday.
The comedian was convicted by a jury of molesting a woman at his home outside Philadelphia in 2004, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.

Qatar Airways suffers 'substantial loss'

Qatar Airways has experienced a "substantial" loss in its last financial year, as a direct consequence of the regional dispute that ended up banning the airline, according to its chief executive Akbar al-Baker. The Qatari flag carrier lost access to 18 cities in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Bahrain when those countries imposed a blockade on the country last June, accusing Qatar of supporting "terrorism". Qatar denies the charges.

An accident involving a train and a vehicle on Friday morning in South Africa left seven people dead, Western Cape traffic chief Kenny Africa has confirmed. Traffic services and police were still on the scene of the crash, which took place at about 06:00. Metrorail said train crews were receiving "medical and emotional support" and there were no reports of commuters being injured.

A woman was jailed for her cruel scam in which she told her family and friends that she was dying from cancer and needed help. Hanna Dickenson of Australia was 19-years-old when she wanted to travel and have fun. However, she did not have the money to do so. She came up with a plan of faking an illness. The teenager told her parents that she has a short time to live and that she desperately needed money for a lifesaving treatment.

Apple fell for the third day after analysts at Morgan Stanley cut their forecasts for iPhone shipments, adding to concern about the tech giant’s primary source of revenue ahead of quarterly earnings in May. Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty lowered her projections for iPhone shipments by 1 million in the quarter ending in March and 6 million for the current quarter. Huberty now sees shipments for fiscal 2018 of 210 million, down from an earlier estimate of 217 million.

Six people including two children were killed in 48 hours as flash floods swept away their cars in heavy rainfall over northwest Algeria, rescue services announced on Thursday.
Civil defence spokesperson Colonel Farouk Achour told AFP the children and a man died when a wadi flooded late Wednesday in the Tiaret region, 330km southwest of Algiers. One of the children was earlier reported as missing. Three other people drowned on Tuesday night when a river burst its banks in El-Bayadh, 800 kilometres southwest of the capital.
Emergency services said they carried out several rescue operations for Tiaret residents stranded in their homes or cars and at a school in the neighbouring region of Tissemsilt.

Andres Iniesta to Leave Barcelona After 16 Seasons

Andres Iniesta announced his departure from Barcelona at the end of the season after 16 seasons with the club in a press conference Friday. An emotional Iniesta talked to media as his teammates watched, following a practice. When asked about future plans, he said people would know at the end of the season, but he confirmed he won't play in Europe.

Popular Swedish DJ and musician, Avicii died suddenly last Friday and his family has released a second statement that implies he committed suicide. The statement seemingly offers more insight into the DJ's cause of death. Though the cause of the DJ's death has not been made public, his parents said Thursday that Avicii, whose real name was Tim Bergling, "was not made for the machinery he ended up in".

The scientist who created nerve gas Novichok, which was used in poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal in the UK, has been hit by a car in Russia. Vladimir Uglev, 71, was hit at a pedestrian crossing near his home, which is close to the Black Sea resort of Anapa. He jumped on to the bumper and crashed through the windscreen in order to avoid getting under the wheels of the vehicle.
The accident left him with injuries to his head, arms, and legs. Uglev was strong enough to talk following the crash after undergoing an MRI for his head injuries.

A man who survived a helicopter crash was sliced to death by the blades of another helicopter when the aircraft arrived to rescue him during a rescue mission last Sunday. The victim's own helicopter crashed in a remote part of the southwestern Cauca District in Colombia and he and another man were stranded in the hillside for seven days after their craft broke down with technical issues. They had managed to survive for the week before another helicopter was sent out to find them and retrieve their crashed helicopter, which had been carrying valuable equipment.

Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio has sacked all political appointees at the country’s foreign missions including ambassadors and information attachés. He has also retired all workers in the public service who have attained the age of 60, except those under special employment approved by parliament. The sackings were contained in an executive order President Maada Bio issued on Wednesday, in which he announced a wide range of measures to reduce financial waste. He also embargoed recruitments in the public service.

Here are the measures announced on Wednesday:

(C)Twitter

Uganda has begun counting its population of critically endangered mountain gorillas amid confidence that their numbers are steadily rising, boosting prospects for its tourism industry that relies heavily on the primates. The last census in 2011 showed the East African country had 480 mountain gorillas in two protected areas, or about half of the world's surviving population. The others are in neighbouring Rwanda and Congo's forested mountain areas.

The Lagos state police command, Nigeria has taken custody of three-year-old twin boys after their mother, Patience Isua, filmed them while making love and sent the atrocious video to their father, Emmanuel Ikanta whom she is no longer with. A tearful Patience who was at the Lagos state police command yesterday, said she filmed her sons making love to themselves as a prove to their father who never believed her that the twins were engaging in an abominable act.

A man has been slapped with a £45,000 fine for sharing live streams of Sky Sports. Waqas Rasheed was found guilty of breaching the company's copyright after sharing broadcasts from the then Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 channels in March and April last year. He shared the streams on website IPTVdonations.com for other people to illegally watch.

Opera is releasing a new Android web browser today with a couple of clever interface choices meant to make it easier to use than other mobile browsers. It’s called Opera Touch, and the interface is designed around one-handed use. When you open it, the address bar immediately opens up and is ready for you to begin typing a URL or a search query. And when you’re on a website, scrolling up will reveal a button at the bottom of the page that you can tap to access your other tabs or to start a new one.

Monday, 30 April 2018

Sunday, 29 April 2018

Saturday, 28 April 2018

Friday, 27 April 2018