A British helicopter pilot was shot and killed while trying to stop elephant poachers in Tanzania

Monday, February 1, 2016

A British helicopter pilot was shot and killed while trying to stop elephant poachers in Tanzania, a conservation group said.
The pilot, Roger Gower, was killed Friday while working with the Texas-based Friedkin Conservation Fund, in a joint effort with Tanzanian wildlife authorities, to "track down and arrest active elephant poachers," according to a statement on the group's website.

"In the course of this action, the poachers fired upon the helicopter and Roger was fatally wounded."

"We are committed to honoring Roger and his work," Dan Friedkin, chairman of the group, said in the statement. "We are also committed to ensuring that those responsible for this attack are found and brought to justice. We believe that Roger can best be honored by redoubling our commitment to protect elephants and our priceless wildlife heritage. This tragic event again highlights the appalling risk and cost of protecting Tanzania¹s wildlife."

Gower was flying in the Maswa Game Reserve, near Serengeti National Park, trying to track down poachers who had killed an elephant, according to tweets from Lazaro Nyalandu, Tanzania's former minister for natural resources and tourism. Gower managed to land the helicopter after being hit by fire from an AK-47. Gower "sadly died before his rescue," Nyalandu wrote.

"You loved our country and I knew you on many flights we took together in defence of our wildlife heritage."

Britain's Foreign Office confirmed the death of a Briton in Tanzania and said it was "providing assistance to the family at this difficult time," the Associated Press reported.

Poaching is fueled by a demand for ivory from Asia, according to the World Wildlife Federation. Yet demand for ivory in China appears to be falling, according to a December report from Save the Elephants, which notes that the price for ivory has fallen by nearly half since 2014.

Juliet Ibrahim stuns at Maya Awards 2016

Monday, February 1, 2016

Juliet Ibrahim stuns at the Maya Awards 2016 as she receives a Honorary award for Philanthropic works. She also looked amazing at the butterscotch event on Saturday. More photos after the cut..

British GQ magazine celebrates the many faces of David Beckham

Monday, February 1, 2016

Football icon David Beckham is know all over the world as a great football player and has appeared on GQ several times. To celebrate the icon that is David Beckham, GQ magazine delved into the archives to show how he has changed over the years.

The March issue of the British edition of the glossy will feature five exclusive covers that explore his various guises as footballer, model, father, husband and philanthropist. More photos after the cut...

Doctors Geneva University Hospital successfully separate 8-day-old conjoined twins

Monday, February 1, 2016

Doctors have successfully separated conjoined twin sisters fused at the liver and chest - the smallest pair ever to survive surgery.

Five surgeons, assisted by two nurses and six anaesthesiologists, carried out the successful, five-hour operation to separate the tiny identical twins at a hospital in Bern, Switzerland.
Maya and Lydia were born two months prematurely along with their triplet sister Kamilla in December.

They were initially stable and doctors at Inselspital hospital, Bern, had planned to allow them to settle after birth and separate them after a few months.

But after a week, their situation deteriorated dramatically: one suffering from hypertension and the other suffering from the opposite condition, known as hypotension.

Both conditions were life-threatening to the frail twins, who weighed just 2.4 pounds each, and the doctors decided their only chance was attempting surgery never before performed on such young infants.

Separating the babies' liver put both under massive pressure, said Barbara Wildhaber, head of the paediatric surgery unit at the Geneva University Hospital, who headed the team that carried out the surgery.

'We were prepared for the death of both babies, it was so extreme,' she told Swiss paper Le Matin Dimanche.

 

She added: 'It was magnificent. I will remember it my entire career.'

 

Since their surgery, Maya and Lydia have been recovering well, they have put on weight and have begun breast feeding, the paper reported.

The pair is among only about 200 separated conjoined twins currently living around the globe, it said.

Also known as Siamese twins, conjoined siblings are identical twins who in rare cases, about one in 200,000 live births, are born with their skin and internal organs fused together, according to the University of Maryland Medical Centre website.

About half are stillborn, and the survival rate is between five and 25 percent.

They develop from a single egg, which splits in the case of healthy twins, but not fully in the case of conjoined siblings.

Source: Daily Mail

Walmart heiress Alice Walton is the richest woman in the world

Monday, February 1, 2016

With a net worth of $33.2 billion, Alice Walton isn't just the wealthiest woman on our list of the 50 richest people on earth, she's also a member of one of the richest families in the world.
Alice, along with older brothers Jim and Rob, who also graced the list, produced with Wealth-X, a company that conducts research on the superwealthy, have a combined net worth of $101.5 billion, thanks primarily to their stake in retail giant Walmart.
Unlike her brothers, 66-year-old Walton never took an active role in running the retail empire her father started in 1962, though she's still managed to become the target of pushback from minimum-wage Walmart employees who view her highfalutin lifestyle as insensitive and ignorant to the plight of many workers.
Instead of spending time at Walmart, Walton became a patron of the arts at a young age. When she was just 10 years old, Walton saved up her allowance to buy a reproduction of Picasso's "Blue Nude," she told The New Yorker.
"Collecting has been such a joy, and such an important part of my life in terms of seeing art, and loving it,” she said.
She began buying watercolor pieces in the 1970s and adorning the walls of her Rocking W Ranch with them. From there she moved on to more serious original works, particularly those by classic American artists; her immense personal collection now includes pieces from Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell, and Georgia O'Keefe, among others.
In 2011, she opened the $50 million Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas to house her $500 million collection. When it opened, Crystal Bridges already had four times the endowment of the famous Whitney Museum in New York.
Before delving into the art realm, Walton made a brief career as an equity analyst and even founded her own investment bank, Llama Company, in 1988. The company closed about 10 years later, shortly after Walton was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol (not for the first time).
Twice divorced with no children, Walton is also a lover of horses, which she breeds at Rocking W Ranch, located in Texas, and rides competitively. The 1,456-acre ranch, however, is currently for sale for nearly $20 million.
Walton is one of just four women to make our list of the 50 richest people on earth — and each inherited their fortune. The next wealthiest woman is 93-year-old Liliane Bettencourt, the French heiress to the L'Oreal fortune, with a net worth of $29 billion.

Two Virginia Tech students charged in death of 13-year-old girl

Monday, February 1, 2016

Two Virginia Tech engineering students were in custody on Sunday, one charged with abducting and killing a 13-year-old girl and the other accused of helping to dispose of the teenager's body, police said.
The arrests came on Saturday after police, following a four-day search, found the remains of Nicole Lovell in North Carolina, about 90 miles (145 km) south of Blacksburg, Virginia, where her home and the university are located.
Lovell had been missing from her family's home since Wednesday. A family member told the Roanoke Times it appeared she had climbed out of a first-floor window.

It was not immediately clear how she crossed paths with David Eisenhauer, 18, a freshman from Columbia, Maryland, and member of the university's cross-county team.

But police in Blacksburg, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Roanoke, Virginia, said investigators had determined the two teens became acquainted before her disappearance. Eisenhauer took advantage of that relationship to abduct and kill Lovell, they said in a statement.
Police have not said how Lovell died.

Eisenhauer was arrested at his campus residence on Saturday, first charged with abduction and then accused of murder after Lovell's remains were discovered near a highway in Surry County, North Carolina.

A star Maryland high school athlete before coming to Virginia Tech, Eisenhauer was named the Howard County Times/Columbia Flier Indoor Track Athlete of the year, according to a 2015 profile in the Baltimore Sun.

Natalie Marie Keepers, 19, a sophomore at Virginia Tech from Laurel, Maryland, was arrested on Sunday and charged with improper disposal of a dead body and accessory after the fact in the commission of a felony.

"I'm so in shock I know nothing more to say," the victim's father, David Lovell, said on Facebook. "I'm broken!"

Family members had pleaded for Nicole Lovell's return, saying she was without the prescription medicine she needed daily after undergoing a liver transplant.
Authorities said they were working to piece together the events leading to Lovell's death.

A Virginia Tech spokeswoman would not comment on the enrollment status of Eisenhauer and Keepers, but the university said in a statement it had the authority to suspend students immediately on an interim basis in the case of a felony arrest.
Hundreds of students in the university's Corps of Cadets, along with students and researchers using drones, assisted in the search for Lovell, the school said.



Source: Reuters

A U.S. citizen has been arrested in Rome on suspicion of prolific child sex abuse after he was caught raping a 14-year-old boy

Monday, February 1, 2016

A U.S. citizen has been arrested in Rome on suspicion of prolific child sex abuse after he was caught raping a 14-year-old boy, according to Italian newspaper reports.

The man, said to be a 52-year-old former Boeing engineer from Chicago, has allegedly spent a month luring scores of young teenage boys to a rented apartment near the city's Termini station, which has become an epicenter for illegal immigrants, underage prostitutes, and criminal gangs.

He paid the victims - mostly North African and Romanian migrants, some Italian - between €50 and €150 for sex, the Interior Ministry told Il Messaggero.

His arrest concludes a two-week police investigation into reports that a foreign man was seen skulking around the station every night scouting young boys for sex, according to official statements.

After placing hidden cameras around the station, police said, they identified the man - known locally as 'The English' - then burst into his apartment as he was sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy.

He has been arrested and jailed, the reports claim.

 

Police believe that the man came to the Termini station ghetto specifically to 'prey' on young teenagers for sex, and that he intended to stay in the city until February. 

They suspect he targeted Termini after widespread international reports about child prostitution rings run in the station's toilets and back alleys. whether it is a former employee.'

 

It comes less than a year after Termini station police uncovered a large-scale child prostitution ring in May 2015, which led to the arrest of at least eight men including a priest and a pastor.

 

The station has become a hub for the underage sex trade, with Middle Eastern, African and Romanian boys and girls - some as young as 11 - loitering around toilets to sell themselves.  

 

They operate under the control of a number of older men aged 35 to 70, Il Messaggero reported last year.

 

But despite widespread efforts by Termini police to crack down on the ghetto of illegal immigrants, today's report suggests children and their abusers are finding ways to evade law enforcement. 

 

The age of consent in Italy is 14. Prostitution is legal but streetwalking, promoting prostitution, or working in a brothel is illegal. 

Daily Record

Cindy Crawford announces she is retiring when she turns 50

Monday, February 1, 2016

Supermodel Cindy Crawford has announced that she is retiring from modelling when she turns 50 on February 20.
The 49-year-old beauty is calling time on her legendary career - which has lasted for over 20 years - and stepping away from the camera because she doesn't want to keep 'proving' herself.

Cindy - who quit full-time modelling in 2000 - told United Airlines' Rhapsody magazine:

'I'm sure I'll have my picture taken for 10 more years, but not as a model anymore.'

 'And that's OK. I've done it. I've worked with all these incredible photographers,' she said.

Cindy added: 'What else do I need to do? I can't keep reinventing myself. I shouldn't have to keep proving myself. I don't want to.'

The runway star became a household name and a celebrity brand - as she rose to supermodel status in the eighties.

Cindy touched on aging, revealing that: 'I see my daughter - you spend your teenage years wanting to be older. When are you just happy where you are? Both my grandmothers are still alive. One is 93 and lives by herself - but she still calls me for face cream. I wonder if she looks in the mirror and asks "Who is that?"'

Cindy - who has son Presley, 16, and daughter Kaia, 14, with husband Rande Gerber - recently admitted to People Magazine in December that she is planning to 'embrace' being 50 and wants to grow old gracefully.

'Women like Helen Mirren and Jane Fonda, they look amazing and they look appropriate. They look amazing but they're not trying to look 30. I don't want to be trying to compete with my 14-year-old daughter - because I would lose!' 

'I always thought, "When can I just let it all go?" It's just never. There is no age now! It was the aspect of embracing turning 50 and celebrating the past, but at the same time I am embracing where I am.'

West Ham sign Nigerian footballer Emmanuel Emenike

Monday, February 1, 2016

Emmanuel Emenike has signed for top English club West Ham on loan from Fenerbahce till the end of the season. The footballer who retired from the Super Eagles last year agreed to join the club in the late hours of Sunday, 31st of January, barely 24hours till the end of the transfer window.

The Nigeria international has been on loan at Qatari club Al Ain this season.

"I'm very happy and very excited that I'm here," 28-year-old Emenike told the club's official website. "I have always known West Ham as a great club. I have known [manager Slaven] Bilic for years and thank God we are here together." he said

Emenike, who has scored nine goals in 37 international appearances for Nigeria, is the club's second signing of the January transfer window.

President Buhari says that the judiciary is his main headache in his ongoing fight against corruption in Nigeria.

Monday, February 1, 2016

President Buhari says that the judiciary is his main headache in his ongoing fight against corruption in Nigeria. According to a statement released by the special adviser to Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, Buhari said this while speaking with Nigerians living in Ethiopia during his visit to the country over the weekend.

"On the fight against corruption vis-à-vis the judiciary, Nigerians will be right to say that is my main headache for now. If you reflect on what I went through for twelve years when I wanted to be the President, I attempted three times and on the fourth attempt through God and the use of technology, it was possible for Nigerians to elect an APC candidate as President. In my first attempt in 2003, I ended up at the Supreme Court and for 13 months I was in court. The second attempt in 2007, I was in court close to 20 months and in 2011, my third attempt, I was also in court for nine months. All these cases went up to the Supreme Court until the fourth time in 2015, when God agreed that I will be President of Nigeria,’’ Buhari said.

He assured members of the Nigerian community that with the support of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, he will continue to do his best to improve the nation’s judicial administration system. On urban development and infrastructure, Buhari announced that the Federal Government has ordered a review of several railway transport projects signed by the previous administration with the Chinese government.

"The Chinese government was very generous to Nigeria on the projects signed with the previous government because they agreed to pay 85 per cent of the project. But the Nigerian government was unable to meet up with its counterpart funding of 15 per cent, so the Chinese government was unable to make any impact on the project,’’ he said.

The President said he has directed the Ministers of transportation, finance, power, works and housing, to revisit the agreements and explore ways of re-approaching the Chinese government for assistance. He added that the Chinese government had indicated interest to assist Nigeria on project financing through its Export-Import Bank Commenting on the proposed N6.077 trillion 2016 budget submitted to the National Assembly, Buhari said for the first time in Nigeria, the budget will be largely financed from non-oil revenue. He identified the collapse of the international oil market and oil theft in the Niger Delta as main reasons for projecting more revenues to fund the budget from the non-oil sector.

"The theft of the oil market by some Nigerians that happen to live there who feel that the oil belongs to them and not the country is an irritating thing for those of us who participated in the civil war for 30 months in which at least 2 million Nigerians were killed,’’ he said.

He also said that the proposed budget would focus on increasing efficiency and transparency in government operations and the blocking of leakages from revenue generating agencies. He added that the recovered assets of the country would also be used to reduce the budget deficit.

Chris Brown lashes out after his baby mama accused him of endangering their child

Monday, February 1, 2016

Chris Brown's baby mama Nia Guzman last week filed court docs accusing Chris of causing their daughter Royalty to become asthmatic from second hand cigarette and weed smoke and for this, Nia asked a judge to restrict Chris's visitation rights and force him to go for drug test. In an instagram post he's since deleted, Chris Brown lashed out, saying the allegations was just a way for Nia to extort him. What he wrote after the cut...

Timbaland refuses to play at a concert because he was not giving the champagne he requested and fans are mad at him.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Timbaland refused to perform at a fundraiser for water-plagued Flint, Michigan, because he was served the wrong champagne, it has been claimed. The music producer reportedly asked for Ace Of Spades, a particular brand of bubbly designed by Jay Z, to be served in the dressing room of the Detroit event raising money to buy bottled water for residents. Instead he was served Dom Perignon - and that was enough to lose his contract all together.

According to the New York Daily News, Timbaland drank every drop of the champagne, tequila, vodka, cognac, and disaronno that he had requested but refused to perform his 30-minute DJ set because of the champagne mix-up and simply stood in the venue nodding his head.

A lot of Michigan residents felt disappointed that he didn't perform and started to curse him, so he took to IG to try to explain what happened but no once could decipher what he tried to say. He wrote: