Geddert, 63, had owned the training facility in Michigan where Nassar had served as the gym’s doctor. A number of gymnasts accused him of abusive behaviour when they testified during Nassar’s trial.
He was expected to turn himself in on Thursday afternoon but did not appear, the attorney general’s office said.
“My office has been notified that the body of John Geddert was found late this afternoon after taking his own life,” Ms Nessel later said in a statement.
“This is a tragic end to a tragic story for everyone involved.”
Tory Lanez’s request for permission to speak publicly about the widely publicized Megan Thee Stallion assault case has been denied.
As reported back in January, per legal documents obtained by Complex, Lanez had asked the court to modify a protection order preventing him from publicly speaking on the case. The motion from Lanez’s team argued that, in their opinion, it was unfair that Megan could use her respective platforms to address the case while he was barred from doing the same. The protection order in question also restricts Lanez from contacting Megan via social media.
According to a report from Page Six, a judge denied Lanez’s request during a hearing on the case on Thursday. Lanez’s lawyer Shawn Holley argued at the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles on Thursday, per the report, that the order was “unfair” to his client. The judge overseeing the case, however, ruled that he can’t publicly address it.
Previously, a false story was widely circulated on Twitter and elsewhere claiming that Lanez’s charges in connection with the shooting had been dropped. The quickly-proven-wrong claims used a screenshot of a Los Angeles County court website to assert that Megan herself had dropped the charges. Not only would Megan not be the one dropping any such charges (that would be the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office), a rep from the D.A.’s Office confirmed that the case was unchanged at the time and pointed to a hearing date set for Feb. 25, i.e. today.
Tory Lanez
In October 2020, the D.A. announced that Lanez had been charged with one felony count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and carrying a loaded, registered firearm in a vehicle. At the time, he was also confirmed to be facing a “gun allegation and that he personally inflicted great bodily injury” on “a female friend in the Hollywood Hills.”
If convicted as charged, Lanez faces a potential max sentence of 22 years and eight months.
Yemi Eberechi Alade, born 13 March 1989 and known professionally as Yemi Alade, is a Nigerian afropop singer, songwriter, actress and activist. Born to Yoruba father, who was a Police commissioner, and a loving Igbo mother, her music has been of influence in many African countries and the world, as she sings in six languages.
Yemi won the MTV African Music Awards for Best Female in 2015 and 2016 and was nominated for Artist of the Year in 2015, making her the first female to win the MAMAs for Best Female consecutively. In 2015, Alade was the first Nigerian female to be nominated for the MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs) for Best African Act. It is no surprise then, that she was a coach on season two of The Voice Nigeria.
Alade was recently among the forefront of artists and musicians from across the world to perform at The Global Goal: Unite For Our Future. This aimed to deliver COVID-19 tests and treatments, especially in the most remote places in Africa and across the world. She performed alongside Miley Cyrus, Shakira, J Balvin, Jennifer Hudson, Coldplay, Usher, Justin Bieber and Quavo.
As an activist, Yemi was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in September 2020. She pledged with the UNDP that her focuses on Sustainable Development Goals would be on inequality, empowering women and creating awareness for the impact of global climate change.
Customs authorities in Germany and Belgium have seized a record of more than 23 tonnes of cocaine that was destined for the Netherlands.
German officials discovered 16 tonnes in five shipping containers that had arrived in the port of Hamburg from Paraguay earlier this month.
Police in the Netherlands were notified and a further 7.2 tonnes of cocaine was seized at the Belgian port of Antwerp.
German officials said the cocaine had a street value of billions of euros.
A 28-year-old man suspected of involvement in the trafficking of the drugs has been arrested in the Netherlands, Dutch police said on Wednesday.
The two raids, which took place earlier this month, resulted in the seizure of an “enormous amount of cocaine”, customs officials said.
In Antwerp, the drug was hidden in a container filled with wooden blocks from Panama.
The cocaine found in the northern German city of Hamburg was concealed in tins of wall filler, which had entered Europe on a container ship from Paraguay.
image captionOfficials ordered the containers to be emptied after noticing “clear irregularities”
Customs officers decided to take a closer look at the Paraguayan containers after noticing “clear irregularities” with some of the contents – tin cans that were meant to be filled with putty.
“Beyond a layer of genuine goods, packed just behind the container door, numerous tin cans were in fact filled with other goods,” officials said.
image captionCustoms officials said the amount of cocaine discovered had a street value of “several billion dollars”
Investigators then ordered the containers to be unloaded, and found cocaine stashed away in more than 1,700 tins.
“This is the largest amount of cocaine ever seized in Europe and one of the largest single seizures worldwide,” German customs said, referring to the Hamburg haul alone.
“We are estimating a street sales value of between €1.5bn and €3.5bn ($1.8bn and $4.2bn) for the 16 tonnes,” Hamburg customs official Rene Matschke told AFP news agency.
Hamburg is Europe’s third biggest port, and the largest in Germany.
Paraguay has been a key transit country for drugs for years.
Powerful drug trafficking gangs from neighbouring Brazil, such as First Capital Command (PCC), have expanded across the border into Paraguay and are running many of the smuggling operations there.
The drugs are often shipped in containers from Paraguay to port cities in Europe.
This latest haul, however, is the biggest ever discovered in Europe.
In October, 11.5 tonnes of cocaine was discovered hidden in scrap metal containers that had arrived in Antwerp from South America.
In August 2019, customs officials at the port of Hamburg seized about 4.5 tonnes of cocaine from a shipment that was listed as soya beans. Officials said at the time that the haul could have been worth up to €1bn, depending on its purity.
High-purity cocaine can be cut up or divided, with different substances added to increase profits when sold on the street.
Last year, about 102 tonnes of cocaine was intercepted while heading for Europe.
Nigerian singer Joseph Akinwale Akinfenwa also known as Joeboy has revealed that he is in a relationship with a ‘sugar mummy.’ The music star made this known during an interview with Beats 99.9 FM.
“Yes, I’m single but I have a lot of female friends…well I’m not searching as I have a lot of female friends. I’m still a sugar baby I can’t say her name but I am. I have a sugar mummy,” he said. When asked how he met his sugar mummy, the music star gave a subtle response “She met me. The truth is that I feel super free and she feels the same way too.” The singer also revealed that he almost dated one of his fans bu t it didn’t work out.
For Joeboy, since finding stardom, it has become super difficult for him to get into a serious relationship.
Shaffy Bello is an award winning nollywood actress and singer. She first shot into the entertainment scene when she featured in a 1997 hit song by Seyi Sodimu, titled “Love Me Jeje”.
Shaffy grew up in the United States where she completed her education. Her first major film was Eti Keta, a Yoruba film.
Shaffy Bello
In 2012, she starred as “Joanne Lawson” in the TV series titled “Tinsel” and as “Adesuwa” in “Taste of Love”. Shaffy has since featured in several Yoruba and English language films and TV series including ; When Love Happens, Gbomo Gbomo Express , Taste of Love, Elevator Baby and more!
Shaffy Bello is married with two children(male and female). On the 8th of October 2020,she celebrated her 50th birthday in style.
A Beijing divorce court has ordered a man to compensate his wife for the housework she did during their marriage, in a landmark ruling.
The woman will receive 50,000 yuan ($7,700; £5,460) for five years of unpaid labour.
The case has generated a huge debate online over the value of domestic work, with some saying the compensation amount was too little.
The ruling comes after China’s introduction of a new civil code.
According to court records, the man identified by his surname Chen had filed for divorce last year from his wife, surnamed Wang, after getting married in 2015.
She was reluctant to divorce at first, but later requested financial compensation, arguing that Chen had not shouldered any housework or childcare responsibilities for their son.
Beijing’s Fangshan District Court ruled in her favour, ordering him to pay her monthly alimony of 2,000 yuan, as well as the one-off payment of 50,000 yuan for the housework she has done.
The presiding judge told reporters on Monday that the division of a couple’s joint property after marriage usually entails splitting tangible property. “But housework constitutes intangible property value,” said the judge.
The ruling was made according to the new civil code in the country, which came into effect this year. Under the new law, a spouse is entitled to seek compensation in a divorce if he or she bears more responsibility in child raising, caring for elderly relatives, and assisting partners in their work.
Previously, divorcing spouses could only request for such compensation if a prenuptial agreement had been signed – an uncommon practice in China.
On social media, the case sparked heated debate, with a related hashtag on microblogging platform Weibo viewed more than 570 million times.
Some social media users pointed out that 50,000 yuan for five years’ of work was too little. “I’m a bit speechless, the work of a full-time housewife is being underestimated. In Beijing, hiring a nanny for a year costs more than 50,000 yuan,” said one commenter.
Others pointed out that men should assume more household duties in the first place.
Some also called on women to continue pursuing their careers after marriage. “Ladies, remember to always be independent. Don’t give up work after marriage, give yourself your own way out,” wrote one social media user.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Chinese women spend nearly four hours a day on unpaid work – roughly 2.5 times that of men.
It is higher than the average in OECD countries, where women spend twice the amount of time as men on unpaid work.
As well as facing drug trafficking charges, she is also accused of conspiring with others to help her husband escape from prison in Mexico in 2015.
He was sprung from Mexico’s maximum-security Altiplano prison after his sons bought a property near the prison and a GPS watch smuggled into the prison gave diggers his exact location. He escaped by riding a specially adapted small motorcycle through the tunnel.
Court documents said Ms Coronel Aispuro was allegedly involved in planning another prison escape for her husband before he was extradited to the US in January 2017.
She has not commented on the charges.
Ms Coronel Aispuro is a dual US-Mexico citizen, a former beauty pageant winner and journalism student, and the mother of twins with Guzman. According to previous interviews she’s given to US media, she first met Guzman at a dance when she was 17 and he was 49.
She attended nearly every day of her husband’s three-month trial in New York, during which she heard not only grim accounts of murder and rape, but also claims he spied on her and other mistresses.
She came under the media spotlight during that trial. In one instance, she appeared to laugh during the tearful testimony of one of Guzman’s mistresses. On another day she and Guzman wore similar velvet jackets, which many people interpreted as a show of solidarity.
She remained supportive of Guzman throughout, saying at the end of the trial: “I don’t know my husband as the person they are trying to show him as, but rather I admire him as the human being that I met, and the one that I married.”
Guzmán came from a poor family in Sinaloa state, north-west Mexico. His organised crime business grew so big that he entered Forbes’ 2009 list of the world’s richest men at number 701, with an estimated worth of $1bn (£709m).
The boyfriend of a South African woman, whose murder galvanised protests against violence against women in the country, has been charged with her murder at a court in Johannesburg.
image captionTshegofatso Pule was missing for four days before her body was found
Ntuthuko Ntokozo Shoba is accused of planning Tshegofatso Pule’s murder and paying the killer.
The body of the pregnant 28-year-old was found hanging from a tree two years ago, with multiple stab wounds.
Mr Shoba was not asked to enter a plea during his court appearance.
Last week, a Johannesburg court sentenced another man, Mzikayise Malephane, to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to murdering Ms Pule.
In a plea agreement read out in court by his lawyer, Malephane, 31, said he had been offered 7,000 rand (£340; $480) by Mr Shoba to carry out the killing but had declined. The offer went up to 70,000 rand before he accepted, he said.
Malephane told the court that Mr Shoba “did not want his wife to find out about the unborn baby”.
Prosecutors have charged Mr Shoba, who was arrested last week, with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and defeating the ends of justice.
They got into an argument and he later called a taxi whose driver turned out to be Malephane.
On 5 June Ms Pule’s body was found hanging from a tree in Roodepoort area in the West Rand district.
image captionMuzikayise Malephane has implicated Ms Pule’s ex-boyfriend
Her death was widely condemned and inspired the hashtag #JusticeForTshego on Twitter, the BBC’s Pumza Fihlani reports from Johannesburg.
In a country with one of the highest levels of violence in the world, including high cases of femicide, Ms Pule’s death distressed many, our reporter adds.
In response, President Cyril Ramaphosa released a statement denouncing gender-based violence, saying the pandemic had made it more dangerous for women because “violent men are taking advantage of the eased restrictions on movement to attack women and children”.
As many as 51% of women in South Africa had experienced violence at the hands of someone they were in a relationship with, the president’s statement said.
Following an outcry over a spate of femicides the year before, President Ramaphosa said South Africa was one of “the most unsafe places in the world to be a woman”.
Mr Shoba’s case has been postponed until 1 March when a formal bail application will be heard.
The family of an 11-year-old boy who died in recent cold weather in Texas have filed a $100m (£71m) lawsuit against power companies for negligence.
Cristian Pineda was found unresponsive by his mother in their mobile home last week amid freezing temperatures.
Millions were left without power in the unusually cold weather, which has killed dozens in southern states.
The family suspect hypothermia but police say official autopsy results may take weeks.
The lawsuit accuses utility firms of putting “profits over the welfare of people” by failing to prepare properly.
Both the Entergy Corporation provider and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot) are named in the lawsuit.
“Despite having knowledge of the dire weather forecast for at least a week in advance, and the knowledge that the system was not prepared for more than a decade, Ercot and Entergy failed to take any pre-emptory action that could have averted the crisis and were wholly unprepared to deal with the crisis at hand,” the lawsuit alleges.
Ercot described the Pineda case as a “tragedy” and told the BBC it was “confident that our grid operators made the right choice to avoid a state-wide blackout”.
A spokesperson for Entergy Texas said the company was “deeply saddened by the loss of life in our community”, but was unable to comment further “due to pending litigation”.
Texas has a deregulated power system which operates independently from other states.
Governor Greg Abbott has already called for an investigation into Ercot, which manages the grid for over 90% of the state’s customers, over its handling of the weather crisis.
https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.39.19/iframe.
The council said it initiated emergency rolling blackouts last week to avoid a state-wide loss of power after about 46% of the privately owned power generation tripped offline on Monday morning.
The complaint alleges power was turned off to “those who were most vulnerable to the cold” as temperatures plummeted to 30-year lows.
“Hence, there were images of empty downtown Houston office buildings with power, but the Pinedas’ mobile home park was left without power,” the lawsuit alleges.
The Pineda family were without electricity and heat for two days as temperatures dropped to -12C (10F) where they lived, according to the lawsuit.
“Everything was well. He was happy that day. He was not at all sick,” she said.
The family of five said they stayed together in one room that night to keep warm. Cristian shared a bed with his younger brother, aged three, but was unresponsive the next day when his mother tried to wake him. She called the emergency services and tried to resuscitate him but without success, according to the legal filing.
The Pineda family lawsuit criticises communication to customers, who believed they would be “temporary” and rolling instead of days long.
“The failure to adequately inform Plaintiffs of the length of the black-outs prevented them from properly preparing for the lack of power, or leaving the area,” the lawsuit says. “Accurate information might have saved Cristian Pineda’s young life.”
The story of his death is one of dozens of tragedies being blamed on the cold weather in Texas. The Pinedas’ lawyer, Tony Buzbee, has said he now represents seven families who lost loved ones.
“Cristian’s lawsuit is the first and his lawsuit should be the first,” Mr Buzbee told ABC News “This kid is going to change Texas and God bless him for that.”
More than $86,000 has been donated on an online fundraiser, set up by the family to help them send the 11-year-old’s body back to Honduras to be buried by his grandparents.
On Saturday, President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in Texas, clearing the way for more federal funds to be spent on relief efforts.
American rapper, Bobby Shmurda has shared a message with his fans ahead of his release from prison. The 26-year-old, whose legal name is Ackquille Pollard, has been in prison since 2014 and will be released on Tuesday, February 23.
He was sentenced in October 2016 to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and weapons possession in connection with what prosecutors said was his leading role in the GS9 gang, an offshoot of the Crips, in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. (read previous post here)
On Monday February 22, a message was shared on Bobby’s Instagram Stories with the rapper thanking fans for their support through his new account after the previous one was hacked.
“Thank you for remaining loyal and for riding this six-year sentence out with me. I love you all and look forward to seeing you soon.”
Bobby Shmurda
Shmurda’s mother, Leslie Pollard, has told TMZ that Bobby will enjoy quality family time including a nice dinner as soon as he’s released.
The mayor of Houston has called for the state of Texas to pay the – in some cases – astronomical electricity bills racked up by residents in last week’s freezing weather.
“The bill should go to the state of Texas,” Houston’s Sylvester Turner told CBS News.
Some residents have reported bills in excess of $16,000 (£11,500) for a few days of usage.
Temperatures plummeted to 30-year lows, hitting 0F (-18C).
Much of Texas, which normally enjoys milder winter weather, was blanketed in snow.
The unusually cold weather across several southern US states claimed at least 70 lives.
Texas is recovering from the freezing temperatures, but many residents still have to boil water due to fears of contamination caused by low mains pressure.
image captionVolunteers handed out food to some of those affected by the weather
Millions of Texans suffered power outages. Electricity supplies have largely been restored in the state, but just under 30,000 customers were still without power on Sunday afternoon, according to Poweroutage.us.
Texas has a deregulated energy market allowing consumers to chose between a number of suppliers. Most are on fixed-rate payment plans, but as temperatures plummeted many on variable-rate tariffs were faced with soaring costs.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the power system for most of the state, is being accused of not being prepared for the shortages.
Dallas resident and US Army veteran Scott Willoughby told the New York Times that he faces a $16,000 bill which had obliterated his savings.
Mayor Turner told CBS that when he was in the state legislature, he had filed a bill to ensure there was “adequate reserve” to prevent blackouts, but it was not considered by the state’s leaders.
The mayor of the state’s fourth largest city suggested the system was not up to the challenges of storms produced by climate change.
“All of this was foreseeable. I wrote about it in 2011. And so for these exorbitant costs, it’s not the consumers who should assume those costs.
“They are not at fault for what happened this week.”
The World Health Organization has urged Tanzania to start reporting coronavirus cases and share its data.
Tanzania is one of the few countries in the world to not publish data on Covid-19 cases.
It last did so in May, when about 500 cases and 20 deaths were recorded. The following month, President John Magufuli declared Tanzania “coronavirus-free”.
But concern is growing about the possibility of a hidden epidemic.
The WHO’s plea comes after a spate of deaths of government officials.
The vice-president of Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar, Seif Sharif Hamad, died on Wednesday after his party said he had contracted Covid-19.
He was the most prominent politician in Tanzania to have openly declared that he had the virus.
The head of the civil service, John Kijazi, also died on Wednesday but no reason was given for his death.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement: “We extend our condolences to our Tanzanian sisters and brothers on the recent passing of a senior Tanzanian leader as well as the government’s chief secretary.”
He then went on to urge Tanzania to start reporting Covid-19 cases and share its data.
While it is difficult to know the extent of the spread of coronavirus in Tanzania without this data, he said that Tanzanians travelling outside the country have tested positive for coronavirus.
“This underscores the need for Tanzania to take robust action both to safeguard their own people and protect populations in these countries and beyond,” he said.
President Magufuli had previously played down the virus and refused to take measures to curb its spread. The health minister said earlier this month that Tanzania had no plans to vaccinate.
However, on Friday, while giving a speech at Mr Kijazi’s funeral, Mr Magafuli appeared to admit that the virus was circulating in Tanzania.
He said Tanzania had defeated Covid-19 last year and would win again this year.
Then on Sunday Mr Magufuli encouraged people to wear masks to avoid infection.
But he urged people to use locally-made masks, saying without evidence that some of the imported ones were not safe.
The daughters of assassinated US black civil rights leader Malcolm X have requested that the murder investigation be reopened in light of new evidence.
They cite a deathbed letter from a man who was a policeman at the time of the 1965 killing, alleging New York police and the FBI conspired in the murder.
Raymond Wood wrote his responsibility was to ensure Malcolm X’s security team were arrested days before he was shot dead in Manhattan, his family says.
Three men were convicted of the murder.
The men – all members of the Nation of Islam political and religious movement – were each sentenced to life in prison. One of them has since died, while the other two have been paroled.
By the time he was gunned down, Malcolm X – who was at one time seen as a public face of the Nation of Islam but then left the movement – had moderated his militant message of black separatism.
However, he remained a passionate advocate of black unity, self-respect and self-reliance.
In 2020, the Manhattan district attorney launched a review of the convictions after meeting representatives of the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal group campaigning for justice for individuals it says have been wrongly convicted.
What does Wood’s letter allege?
The letter says the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) covered up details of the assassination on 21 February 1965 in Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom, Upper Manhattan, according to Wood’s family and their lawyer.
Wood alleges that he was tasked with making sure that Malcolm X would have no door security in the building where he was due to speak in public.
At a press briefing on Saturday, Wood’s family members provided no details about how and when Raymond Wood died.
But they said he did not want to make the letter public until after his death, fearing repercussions from the authorities.
“Any evidence that provides greater insight into the truth behind that terrible tragedy should be thoroughly investigated,” said Ilyasah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X’s daughters.
How have the NYPD and the FBI responded?
In a statement, the NYPD said: “Several months ago, the Manhattan district attorney initiated a review of the investigation and prosecution that resulted in two convictions for the murder of Malcolm X.
“The NYPD has provided all available records relevant to that case to the district attorney. The department remains committed to assist with that review in any way.”
The FBI has so far made no public comment on the issue
Nigerian songwriter cum singer, Simisola Kosoko has revealed the source of her vulnerability. According to her tweet on Sunday, her 6-months-old daughter, Adejare, has made her vulnerable.
The first time mum wrote “Having a daughter has made so vulnerable. I want her to never be hurt, sad, insecure, in pain, confused or afraid.
“The fact I won’t always be able to control these things has made me the most vulnerable I’ve ever been in my life. She added “I have to be the best example for her. So help me God”.
Voluptuously beautiful Nollywood actress, Evia Simon has come a long way in the movie industry. She started acting in 2007 but officially began her journey in Nollywood in 2011. She’s an actress as well as a producer, some of her films include; Child Not Bride, Unbreak and Mind’s Eye. She has seen the good, the bad and the ugly sides of Nollywood and she bares it all in this interview with Vanguard.
She said; “Challenges are part of our daily life’s routine. I have faced a lot of challenges in the industry since I started acting. I have had to face a senior female colleague who insulted me for doing nothing on a location. I have had to hear a voice-note of a senior colleague who denied me after she introduced me just because she felt intimidated.”
“I have escaped accidents from jealous colleagues severally. I have also, at different times, being propositioned for sex for a role by a director or a producer. Another annoying challenge in the beginning is the belief by some directors that they are doing you a favour and not paying you for your service…but in all, man is not God. There is always time and season for every one.”
“My low point is trying to prove a point to a director or a producer that I can do this because most of them feel if they haven’t seen you act they find it difficult to believe you can give your best. I have learnt so much, which is believing in yourself and never giving up, no matter the countless times you have to go on and on to get what you really want from the career you have chosen.”
“Well, sex is sex, and having sex outside marriage is a sin against God because our body is the temple of God. We are not supposed to have sex before marriage…but it’s better having it with someone you love and care about.”
“Relationships are sweet when you and your partner understand each other. Being there for each other, knowing each other’s likes and dislikes and not taking advantage of each other.”
“The word “marriage” is big because it’s a school you will never graduate from. It’s where two people come together to form a union as husband and wife to become one. So many women go into marriage for many reasons which I find very annoying and improper and they end up breaking up after six months. Don’t get married if you are not mentally and spiritually ready for it; if you can’t trust, forgive, learn, understand and make amends. Marriage is sweet if you get to marry your friend, your gist and gossip partner. A lot of women are waiting for marriage to get out of poverty which is very wrong.”
Evia Simon
“Being sexy to me is how intelligent a woman appears to be; smart, elegant and outspoken. You can be sexy in your body and be a dumb ass. If you want to flaunt your sexiness , make sure you are very intelligent and smart to compliment it.”
“Social media has been the greatest tool to the success of my career. Gone are the days when social media was not in use and your works were only seen by certain people. Now social media is a platform to reach millions of people around the world without moving a muscle.”
“My most embarrassing moment is when you are being cast for a role and some other actors come to lobby with money or their body to get the role and you are being pushed out of the job. It is so embarrassing because you might have already announced to your friends you are starting the job. Another embarrassing experience was when a senior colleague insulted me and said to me I could never grow in the industry. If you ask her what I did wrong she’s got nothing to say. She even threatened to leave the set if I was allowed to remain.”
“What turns me on in a man is his generosity. Not just to me but to everyone around him; near or far. What turns me off in a man is laziness and someone who doesn’t care about people but himself alone.”
“Leaving my business to suffer and travelling from state to state must be the biggest sacrifice. Also, letting go of one of my most cherished relationships because he doesn’t want to get married to an actress.”
“My heart has been broken more than 999 times and in fact shattered severally. What I did was to build an unbreakable wall around me not to let my heart be broken again and if you can break the wall and penetrate through, then maybe you are the right person. I have also had my share of bad relationships, I have seen and met 999 wrong guys who think I am made, not knowing I am managing my life, hustling to survive.”
Russia has reported the first case of a bird flu strain, H5N8, being passed from poultry to humans.
Officials said seven workers at a poultry plant in the south of the country had been infected following an outbreak there in December.
“All seven people… are now feeling well,” said the head of Russia’s consumer health watchdog, Anna Popova.
She said that adequate measures had been quickly taken to stop the spread of infection.
There was no sign of transmission between humans, Ms Popova said, adding that the case had been reported to the World Health Organization.
She praised “the important scientific discovery” by Russia’s Vektor laboratory, which had isolated the strain’s genetic material from the infected workers.
“The discovery of these mutations when the virus has not still acquired an ability to transmit from human to human gives us all, the entire world, time to prepare for possible mutations and react in an adequate and timely fashion,” Ms Popova said.
She said Russian scientists could now start working on developing test systems.
Other strains of bird flu occasionally infect humans and have led to deaths – but this is the first report of the H5N8 strain being passed on.
The sculptor behind Wall Street’s famous Charging Bull statue has died aged 80, reports say.
Friends of Arturo Di Modica told Italian media that the sculptor died in his home town of Vittoria, Sicily. He had been fighting cancer for many years, La Repubblica reported.
The bull was originally installed in New York in 1989 without permission.
It was designed to represent the “strength and power of the American people” after the 1987 market crash.
Police seized the 7,100 pound (3,200 kg) bronze statue from its position outside the New York Stock Exchange. But following a public outcry, city officials allowed it to be reinstalled days later in the heart of Manhattan’s financial district.
It has gone on to become one of the most recognisable images of New York, and a major tourist attraction.
In recent years, Di Modica opposed the temporary installation of another now famous statue, called Fearless Girl, opposite the bull.
The Fearless Girl
Di Modica complained at the time that his bull was meant to embody “strength, power and love”, and that having Fearless Girl – designed to call attention to gender inequality and the pay gap in the corporate world – face off against it turned its message into something negative.
Other notable works by Di Modica include marble pieces exhibited at the Rockefeller Center, works in bronze at Castle Clinton National Monument, and a bronze horse exhibited in the Lincoln Center, his biography on chargingbull.com says.
Have you seen a man that will publicly reveal what he does? This young and Fast Rising Musician, NBA Gee Boy happens to be that young man who is very happy for what he does knowing fully well that it is not a clean and clear business. We have seen the likes of Mopha invited by the EFCC for investigation after he made it a habit to always show off cash on Instagram and even Hushpuppi who was later arrested
This young man is well known for showing off stacks of dollars on Instagram and his followers have told him to stop it so that EFCC will not come after him.
He released a video, saying that he is not scared of EFCC and that he has been to jail several times. He also said that there is always life after jail and that even if he is arrested, he will surely come out someday to enjoy his money. NBA Gee Boy said his goal is to secure the future of his unborn children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and that is what he is working towards.
He also revealed in the video that he started scamming people when he was 17 and that since then, he has been cashing out steady. This young man does not really know the implication of what he is doing, because if he does, he will not be showing off stacks of dollars online.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI has linked Instagram celebrity, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, a.k.a Hushpuppi, to North Korean hackers said to be the biggest bank robbers in the world.
The Justice Department in a detailed statement released on Friday, February 19, alleged that Hushpuppi took part in a “North Korean-perpetrated cyber-enabled heist from a Maltese bank in February 2019.” According to the statement, his role was as a collaborator with a North Korean money launderer, Ghaleb Alaumary, 37, based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
“Alaumary agreed to plead guilty to the charge, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Nov. 17, 2020.
“Alaumary was a prolific money launderer for hackers engaged in ATM cash-out schemes, cyber-enabled bank heists, business email compromise (BEC) schemes, and other online fraud schemes. Alaumary is also being prosecuted for his involvement in a separate BEC scheme by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia.
“With respect to the North Korean co-conspirators’ activities, Alaumary organized teams of co-conspirators in the United States and Canada to launder millions of dollars obtained through ATM cash-out operations, including from BankIslami and a bank in India in 2018.
“Alaumary also conspired with Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, aka “Ray Hushpuppi,” and others to launder funds from a North Korean-perpetrated cyber-enabled heist from a Maltese bank in February 2019”the statement read
Hushpuppi was arrested in Dubai in June 2020, and extradited to the US where he is being charged by the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles with conspiring to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from “business email compromise” (BEC) frauds and other scams.
His trial was to have commenced late last year, but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the full US Justice Department statement on Hushpuppi’s alleged involvement with the three North Korean military hackers
A federal indictment unsealed today charges three North Korean computer programmers with participating in a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy to conduct a series of destructive cyberattacks, to steal and extort more than $1.3 billion of money and cryptocurrency from financial institutions and companies, to create and deploy multiple malicious cryptocurrency applications, and to develop and fraudulently market a blockchain platform.
A second case unsealed today revealed that a Canadian-American citizen has agreed to plead guilty in a money laundering scheme and admitted to being a high-level money launderer for multiple criminal schemes, including ATM “cash-out” operations and a cyber-enabled bank heist orchestrated by North Korean hackers.
“As laid out in today’s indictment, North Korea’s operatives, using keyboards rather than guns, stealing digital wallets of cryptocurrency instead of sacks of cash, are the world’s leading bank robbers,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
“The Department will continue to confront malicious nation state cyber activity with our unique tools and work with our fellow agencies and the family of norms abiding nations to do the same.”
Hushpuppi
“Today’s unsealed indictment expands upon the FBI’s 2018 charges for the unprecedented cyberattacks conducted by the North Korean regime,” said the FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate.
“The ongoing targeting, compromise, and cyber-enabled theft by North Korea from global victims was met with the outstanding, persistent investigative efforts of the FBI in close collaboration with U.S. and foreign partners. By arresting facilitators, seizing funds, and charging those responsible for the hacking conspiracy, the FBI continues to impose consequences and hold North Korea accountable for its/their criminal cyber activity.”
“The scope of the criminal conduct by the North Korean hackers was extensive and long-running, and the range of crimes they have committed is staggering,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison for the Central District of California.
“The conduct detailed in the indictment are the acts of a criminal nation-state that has stopped at nothing to extract revenge and obtain money to prop up its regime.”
“This case is a particularly striking example of the growing alliance between officials within some national governments and highly sophisticated cyber-criminals,” said U.S. Secret Service Assistant Director Michael R. D’Ambrosio.
“The individuals indicted today committed a truly unprecedented range of financial and cyber-crimes: from ransomware attacks and phishing campaigns, to digital bank heists and sophisticated money laundering operations. With victims strewn across the globe, this case shows yet again that the challenge of cybercrime is, and will continue to be, a struggle that can only be won through partnerships, perseverance, and a relentless focus on holding criminals accountable.”
The hacking indictment filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleges that Jon Chang Hyok (???), 31; Kim Il (??), 27; and Park Jin Hyok (???), 36, were members of units of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), a military intelligence agency of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), which engaged in criminal hacking. These North Korean military hacking units are known by multiple names in the cybersecurity community, including Lazarus Group and Advanced Persistent Threat 38 (APT38). Park was previously charged in a criminal complaint unsealed in September 2018.
The indictment alleges a broad array of criminal cyber activities undertaken by the conspiracy, in the United States and abroad, for revenge or financial gain. The schemes alleged include:
Cyberattacks on the Entertainment Industry: The destructive cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in November 2014 in retaliation for “The Interview,” a movie that depicted a fictional assassination of the DPRK’s leader; the December 2014 targeting of AMC Theatres, which was scheduled to show the film; and a 2015 intrusion into Mammoth Screen, which was producing a fictional series involving a British nuclear scientist taken prisoner in DPRK.
Cyber-Enabled Heists from Banks: Attempts from 2015 through 2019 to steal more than $1.2 billion from banks in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Mexico, Malta, and Africa by hacking the banks’ computer networks and sending fraudulent Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) messages.
Cyber-Enabled ATM Cash-Out Thefts: Thefts through ATM cash-out schemes – referred to by the U.S. government as “FASTCash” – including the October 2018 theft of $6.1 million from BankIslami Pakistan Limited (BankIslami).
Ransomware and Cyber-Enabled Extortion: Creation of the destructive WannaCry 2.0 ransomware in May 2017, and the extortion and attempted extortion of victim companies from 2017 through 2020 involving the theft of sensitive data and deployment of other ransomware.
Creation and Deployment of Malicious Cryptocurrency Applications: Development of multiple malicious cryptocurrency applications from March 2018 through at least September 2020 – including Celas Trade Pro, WorldBit-Bot, iCryptoFx, Union Crypto Trader, Kupay Wallet, CoinGo Trade, Dorusio, CryptoNeuro Trader, and Ants2Whale – which would provide the North Korean hackers a backdoor into the victims’ computers.
Targeting of Cryptocurrency Companies and Theft of Cryptocurrency: Targeting of hundreds of cryptocurrency companies and the theft of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency, including $75 million from a Slovenian cryptocurrency company in December 2017; $24.9 million from an Indonesian cryptocurrency company in September 2018; and $11.8 million from a financial services company in New York in August 2020 in which the hackers used the malicious CryptoNeuro Trader application as a backdoor.
Spear-Phishing Campaigns: Multiple spear-phishing campaigns from March 2016 through February 2020 that targeted employees of United States cleared defense contractors, energy companies, aerospace companies, technology companies, the U.S.Department of State, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Marine Chain Token and Initial Coin Offering: Development and marketing in 2017 and 2018 of the Marine Chain Token to enable investors to purchase fractional ownership interests in marine shipping vessels, supported by a blockchain, which would allow the DPRK to secretly obtain funds from investors, control interests in marine shipping vessels, and evade U.S. sanctions.
According to the allegations contained in the hacking indictment, which was filed on Dec. 8, 2020, in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and unsealed today, the three defendants were members of units of the RGB who were at times stationed by the North Korean government in other countries, including China and Russia. While these defendants were part of RGB units that have been referred to by cybersecurity researchers as Lazarus Group and APT38, the indictment alleges that these groups engaged in a single conspiracy to cause damage, steal data and money, and otherwise further the strategic and financial interests of the DPRK government and its leader, Kim Jong Un.
Money Launderer Charged in California and Georgia
Federal prosecutors today also unsealed a charge against Ghaleb Alaumary, 37, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, for his role as a money launderer for the North Korean conspiracy, among other criminal schemes. Alaumary agreed to plead guilty to the charge, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Nov. 17, 2020. Alaumary was a prolific money launderer for hackers engaged in ATM cash-out schemes, cyber-enabled bank heists, business email compromise (BEC) schemes, and other online fraud schemes. Alaumary is also being prosecuted for his involvement in a separate BEC scheme by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia.
With respect to the North Korean co-conspirators’ activities, Alaumary organized teams of co-conspirators in the United States and Canada to launder millions of dollars obtained through ATM cash-out operations, including from BankIslami and a bank in India in 2018. Alaumary also conspired with Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, aka “Ray Hushpuppi,” and others to launder funds from a North Korean-perpetrated cyber-enabled heist from a Maltese bank in February 2019. Last summer, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles charged Abbas in a separate case alleging that he conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from BEC frauds and other scams.
Accompanying Mitigation Efforts
Throughout the investigation, the FBI and the Justice Department provided specific information to victims about how they had been targeted or compromised, as well as information about the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by the hackers with the goals of remediating any intrusion and preventing future intrusions. That direct sharing of information took place in the United States and in foreign countries, often with the assistance of foreign law enforcement partners. The FBI also collaborated with certain private cybersecurity companies by sharing and analyzing information about the intrusion TTPs used by the members of the conspiracy.
In addition to the criminal charges, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Treasury, today released a joint cybersecurity advisory and malware analysis reports (MARs) regarding North Korean cryptocurrency malware. The joint cybersecurity analysis and MARs highlight the cyber threat North Korea – which is referred to by the U.S. government as HIDDEN COBRA – poses to cryptocurrency and identify malware and indicators of compromise related to the “AppleJeus” family of malware (the name given by the cybersecurity community to a family of North Korean malicious cryptocurrency applications that includes Celas Trade Pro, WorldBit-Bot, Union Crypto Trader, Kupay Wallet, CoinGo Trade, Dorusio, CryptoNeuro Trader, and Ants2Whale). The joint cybersecurity advisory and MARs collectively provide the cybersecurity community and public with information about identifying North Korean malicious cryptocurrency applications, avoiding intrusions, and remedying infections.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI also obtained seizure warrants authorizing the FBI to seize cryptocurrency stolen by the North Korean hackers from a victim in the indictment – a financial services company in New York – held at two cryptocurrency exchanges. The seizures include sums of multiple cryptocurrencies totalling approximately $1.9 million, which will ultimately be returned to the victim.
Jon, Kim, and Park are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
In relation to the case filed in Los Angeles, Alaumary has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The charges contained in the indictment are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The investigation of Jon, Kim, and Park was led by the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, which worked closely with the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office. The U.S. Secret Service’s Los Angeles Field Office and Global Investigative Operations Center provided substantial assistance. The FBI’s Cyber Division also provided substantial assistance.
The investigations of Alaumary were conducted by the U.S. Secret Service’s Savannah Field Office, FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, and the U.S. Secret Service’s Los Angeles Field Office and Global Investigative Operations Center. The FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division also provided substantial assistance.
The case against Jon, Kim, and Park is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anil J. Antony and Khaldoun Shobaki of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section, with substantial assistance from Trial Attorney Scott Claffee of the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Antony and Shobaki are also prosecuting the case against Alaumary, in which the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia and the Criminal Division’s Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) provided substantial assistance. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Antony and Shobaki, along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Galatzan of the Asset Forfeiture Section, also obtained the seizure warrants for cryptocurrency stolen from the financial services company in New York.
The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided assistance throughout these investigations, as did many of the FBI’s Legal Attachés, as well as foreign authorities around the world. Numerous victims cooperated and provided valuable assistance.”
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