Tuesday, June 30, 2015
DETROIT, Michigan, U.S.A. — A Detroit woman pleaded guilty
Monday to killing two of her children and storing their bodies in a home
freezer, telling a judge that she had no remorse for beating and suffocating
them.
Mitchelle Blair, 36, has never challenged allegations that
she killed her 13-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son.
She pleaded guilty to
first-degree murder without any deal with prosecutors an extraordinary move
and said she would have accepted the death penalty if Michigan had it.
"I don't regret none of this," Blair told the judge Monday, reported the
Associated Press. "I don't feel no remorse for the death of those
demons", She said.
- She was arrested in March, after deputies carrying out an
eviction at her Detroit apartment found the bodies of her children in a deep
freezer. She said she attacked the children months apart in 2012 and 2013.
- Blair said she intended to kill her daughter, Stoni Blair,
but didn’t know the abuse of her son, Stephen Berry, would be fatal.
Blair
alleged the children had sexually abused a sibling, though she said she didn’t
witness the alleged assaults and didn’t get police involved because she feared
she would lose her other children.
Mental health experts had found Blair competent to face
charges. She faces life in prison with no
chance for parole.
Read On
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
PASIR MAS, Kelantan, Malaysia - The couple who allegedly abused a
five-year-old girl in Kelantan have been remanded for four days.
Doctors treating the five-year-old girl found that she has a
total of 13 broken bones on her body.
The remand order, which was issued by the Pasir Mas
Magistrate Courts, takes effect Monday.
The father, 39 and stepmother, 25 were detained by police on
Sunday night in front of a restaurant in Kota Baru, following a search for the
duo over the past two days.
The case is being investigated under Section 31 (1) of the
Child Act 2001.
- The girl has allegedly been abused by her stepmother since
2013 at their home in Taman Rantau Mas, Rantau Panjang, Pasir Mas.
- And she has been suffering the torture for the past two
years.
- Doctors found most of the broken bones on the girls’ back,
and she also has fractures on her hips, arms and thighs.
Raja Perempuan Zainab II hospital director Datuk Dr Ghazali
Hasni(photo) Md Hassan said her injuries will be permanent.
He added that her thigh bones were also uneven resulting in
one being longer than the other.
“Doctors also discovered 10 broken bones on her backbone,
hips and on her arms," he said.
Source: The Star
Read On
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Banks in Greece stayed shut on Monday as officials scrambled to prevent the country's financial system from collapsing in panic.
Account holders were also facing tough limits on what they can withdraw from ATMs, and trading in Greek stocks and bonds was also halted.
The measures were announced Sunday as Greece slid rapidly toward default and exit from the eurozone.
European leaders are now facing one of the worst moments in the history of the euro. President Obama called German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday, and the two agreed to take all steps to try to resolve the crisis.
The trigger for the rapid escalation in the crisis was the Greek government's decision late Friday to pull its negotiators out of bailout talks.
- Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras slammed a draft proposal from Europe and the International Monetary Fund, and said he would put it to the Greek people in a referendum on July 5.
- Since then, European officials have been focusing their efforts on how to limit the damage.
The European Central Bank said Sunday it would provide no new emergency support to Greek banks.
- The crisis in Greece now has the full attention of investors
around the world and they don't like
what they see.
European markets were hammered early Monday morning, with
both the German DAX and French CAC opening 4.4% lower. Portugal's stock market
was down nearly 6%, while Britain's FTSE fared better, shedding only 2%. Those
losses were trimmed by late morning.
European bank stocks were particularly hard hit. Spain's
Banco Santander (BCDRF) gave up 5.7% in early trading, while French bank Credit
Agricole (CRARF) lost 6.7%.
Source:
CNN Money
Read On
Monday, June 29, 2015
PETALING JAYA, Malaysia -Former high-ranking civil
servants and diplomats (G25) coordinator Datuk Noor Farida
Ariffin suggested to The Chief Secretary
to the Government to have a clear directives regarding dress codes and its
enforcement at government offices and agencies.
So far, There is no
legal basis for the imposition of dress codes on the public whom they are
serving, said Faridah.
The incident involving a middle-aged ethnic Chinese woman wearing a
knee-length skirt was asked to wrap herself with a sarong before entering the Road
and Transport Department, created an uproar in Parliament, with lawmakers
asking if this meant Malaysia was becoming a fundamentalist Muslim nation.
On Thursday, former Malaysian PM, Dr Mahathir Mohammad reportedly
said that dress codes were an office matter, that it was the right of an
individual to wear shorts in public and should be allowed to enter government
facilities like a hospital as long as they weren't naked.
Noor Farida added that G25 felt it was inappropriate for
security guards at government agencies or other places to enforce dress codes
at their whims and fancy.
Last month, businessman Wilson Ng returned from a holiday
abroad and forgot his baggage at the airport.
He returned to KLIA the next day but was denied entry to
Lost & Found.
- The security officer said his knee-length pink shorts were not appropriate, and provided him with trousers and shoes which he wore to gain
entry.
In yet another
incident over dress codes, a lawyer was last week barred from a
government building for wearing a skirt that was “too short”.
According to lawyer Katy Chan(photo), the security guard at the Federal
Territories Director of Land and Mines’ office stopped her last Friday
morning as she was writing down her name in the visitors’ registration
book to get a visitors’ pass.
Chan said the guard told her that her skirt was “too short”, also
telling her that she could not enter the building while also asking if
she had a pair of pants with her to wear.
-
The guard also told her to read the dress code placed near the guard house, with Chan telling Malay Mail Online that it required her to wear clothing at knee level.
Source: Asia One
Read On
Monday, June 29, 2015
NEW DELHI- Six members of a suspected international
smuggling racket were arrested with an estimated US$15 million (S$20 million)
of snake venom hidden in school bags close to Bhutan border in eastern India,
officials said Sunday.
The gang were riding two motorbikes and carrying school bags
containing three bullet-proof glass containers of the venom when they were
arrested by police Saturday in Baikunthpur
forest area of Jalpaiguri district
in West Bengal.
- The glass containers are stamped with "Made in
France", Pradhan said, adding that the arrested men said the consignment
may have arrived from France before they picked it up from Bangladesh for
delivery in Bhutan.
- The haul worth at least
100 crore (S$20 million) on (the) international market. There are three
different containers with venom in coco-cola liquid form, white crystals and
yellow granule form, P. R. Pradhan, divisional forest officer, Baikunthpur
forest division told AFP.
- Extracted venom is mostly used as an antidote for snake
bites, which according to World Health Organisation kill an estimated half a
million people globally every year. Snake venom is also used in some cosmetics.
The venom is believed to be from a cobra but chemical tests
are being conducted to identify the snake species, he said.
Wildlife experts say illegal trade of snake venom and skin
is widespread with frequent recoveries reported across India.
However, under Indian law the "milking" of many
other snake species is allowed.
Source: Agency
Read On
Sunday, June 28, 2015
SERDANG, Malaysia — A groom-to-be and his bosom pal were shot
dead at close range while they were distributing his wedding invitations in
Serdang on Wednesday night.
Serdang police chief ACP Razimi Ahmad said all angles were
being investigated and that a manhunt was underway for the assailants.
A. Shamnson and A. Rubban, both 25, died instantly after a
gunman fired five shots at them on the street in front of horrified onlookers.
The gunman, wearing a black T-shirt and a full-faced helmet,
fled the scene with an accomplice at 9.20pm.
Shamnson, a sales adviser with UMW Motors, was to have
married his fiance of six months on July 3.
Rubban worked as a loss adjusting agent with Milan Evolusi
Sdn Bhd, and both also worked as part-time bouncers.
Rubban’s family claimed he was in the wrong place at the
wrong time, as he would normally avoid such violent situations.
They alleged that Shamnson was the actual target, over the
relationship with his fiance.
- Rubban’s uncle, S. Vijendran, said the family suspected that
jealousy was the motive behind the attack.
Read On
Sunday, June 28, 2015
PORT EL KANTAOUI, Tunisia – Thousands of scared foreign
holidaymakers were being flown from Tunisia on Saturday (Jun 27) after a
militant gunman killed 38 people, most of them British tourists, at a beach
resort.
The Islamic State militant group, which controls swathes of
Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in
Tunisia’s recent history.
Dozens more people
were wounded when the assailant pulled a gun from inside a beach umbrella and
opened fire on crowds of tourists on the beach and by a hotel pool in the
popular Mediterranean resort of Port el Kantaoui.
Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid announced that from next
month armed tourist security officers would be deployed all along the coast and
inside hotels.
- But a heavy blow had already been delivered to the key
tourism industry with British tour operator Thomas Cook announcing it would
offer all customers the possibility to change bookings to Tunisia up to and
including Jul 24.
- The Association of British Travel Agents said it was
consulting with the Foreign Office about the longer term.
- The Tunisian prime minister said that most of the dead were
British but that they also included Germans, Belgians and French.
- The attack, the second against tourists in Tunisia this
year, came on the same day that 26 people were killed at a Shiite mosque in
Kuwait and a suspected militant attacked a factory in France.
IS claimed both the Kuwait bombing and the Tunisia attack,
which came just days before the first anniversary of the group declaring its
territory in Iraq and Syria a “caliphate”.
Most of those killed were “subjects of states that make up
the crusader alliance fighting the state of the caliphate”, the group said,referring to the US-led
coalition in an air campaign in Iraq
and Syria.
Read On
Saturday, June 27, 2015
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's famous 24-hour Mamak Stalls and
hawker in specific areas such as in housing and rural areas may soon be no
more, if a proposal submitted to the government to clamp down on these late
night eateries, apparently to curb social ills, is adopted.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Shahidan Kassim(photo)
said the proposal to restrict operating hours to midnight followed complaints
that such outlets were the reason for the rise in social ills nationwide.
A note and proposal paper will be submitted to the Deputy
Prime Minister and National Social Council, he told reporters at Parliament
lobby here yesterday.
According to Shahidan, It is not a blanket ban on all
restaurants or eateries and franchise outlets such as McDonald's and
Kentucky Fried Chicken were not included in the ban.
However, Prime Minister Datuk Najib Abd Razak(photo), said today the shops could stay open.The
prime minister has given the all-clear for 24-hour eating places to remain open
all through the night.
His announcement ends several days of an outcry from
customers and owners of mamak shops and food courts.
Earlier, Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) publicity
bureau chairman Chai Kim Sen(photo) has urged The Malaysian government to rethink the
proposal to ban eateries from operating beyond midnight.
He said there was no clear link between restaurant operating hours
and social
ills.
Source: Agency
Read On
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Almost all crocodiles are
carnivorous reptile,
however an Indian crocodile named Babiya
is found in Ananthapura temple in Kasargode ,kerala, India is harmless and pure
vegeterian.
He is considered to be the guardian of this lake temple.
When that crocodile dies, another one automatically takes guard and appears
mysteriously. Nobody knows the source of crocodile since there are no rivers or
lakes near by
It is also said that the crocodile has been living for the
past 150 years as only one crocodile is seen at a time. This is a harmless,
pure vegetarian crocodile and does not even kill the fish in the lake.
The priests feed the crocodile after the prayers with gruel
of rice and jaggery.
If worshiper calls crocodile with its name nearby cave, the
crocodile silently comes and have food.
Source: Agency
Read On
Friday, June 26, 2015
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA – Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
apologised on Wednesday (Jun 24) to his victims for the first time for the
suffering he caused, moments before a federal judge formally sentenced him to
death.
The US citizen of Chechen descent was sentenced to death on
six counts over the 2013 bombings, one of the bloodiest assaults on US soil
since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks.
Defenselawyer Judy Clarke told the court that Tsarnaev had
offered to plead guilty last year, but Wednesday’s remarks were the first time
that her client had expressed any public remorse.
“I would like to now apologise to the victims and to the
survivors,” said the 21-year-old former university student in his first public
remarks since the Apr 15, 2013 bombings that killed three people.
“I am guilty,” he said in a slight Russian accent, standing
pale and thin in a dark blazer.
“Let there be no doubt about that. I am sorry
for the lives I have taken, for the suffering, the damage that I have done,” he
said, couching his remarks in the name of Allah and asking for God’s
forgiveness.
Judge George O’Toole officially imposed the death sentence,
which had been reached unanimously by a 12-person jury on May 15.
Government prosecutors had painted Tsarnaev as a remorseless
terrorist who deserved to die.
“I sentence you to the penalty of death by
execution,” O’Toole told Tsarnaev, before he was led away by US Marshals.
Tsarnaev will eventually sit on federal death row in Terre
Haute, Indiana, but prosecutors said he could be sent in the interim to
America’s only “super-max” prison, ADX Florence, in Colorado.
Read On