Shocking: The “House Of Horrors” Abortion Clinic Doctor Faces Death Penalty

In Pennsylvania, U.S., Dr. Kermit Gosnell faces the death penalty over allegations that he performed illegal late-term abortions by delivering babies, then snipping their spinal cords with scissors.

Afterward, he would reportedly cut off the babies’ feet and preserve them in jars.

Prosecutors also hold him responsible for the death of 41-year-old Bhutan refugee Karnamaya Mongar, who died from an overdose of anesthesia under his care.

Prosecutors also revealed that the clinic employed an unqualified staff — middle-school dropouts working alongside unlicensed medical school graduates.

The anesthesiologist was a sixth-grade dropout who couldn’t fully read or write, according to prosecutors. The woman who performed ultrasounds had an 8th grade education and phlebotomy certification for drawing blood. Another employee who worked in the operating room was a 15-year-old girl still attending high school.

Former employee Stephen Massof, an unlicensed medical school graduate, described snipping babies’ spinal cords as “literally a beheading.” He told the court that “it would rain fetuses.”

The more women paid, the more anesthesia they received.

Gosnell allegedly gave preferential treatment to white patients, whom he would meet with one-on-one before their procedures.

Former employee Elizabeth Hampton told the court that white women “would get better and more attention.”

Gosnell’s clinic operated for nearly 20 years without being inspected by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

It earned the nickname “House of Horrors” largely because of a 2011 grand jury report that described the office as a “baby charnel house.”

From the District Attorney’s office: “The clinic reeked of animal urine, courtesy of the cats that were allowed to roam (and defecate) freely. Furniture and blankets were stained with blood. Instruments were not properly sterilized. Disposable medical supplies were not disposed of; they were reused, over and over again. Medical equipment – such as the defibrillator, the EKG, the pulse oximeter, the blood pressure cuff – was generally broken; even when it worked, it wasn’t used. The emergency exit was padlocked shut. And scattered throughout, in cabinets, in the basement, in a freezer, in jars and bagsand plastic jugs, were fetal remains.”

Source: Buzzfeed

“We Have Not Committed Any Wrong To Deserve Amnesty”– Boko Haram

The leader of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram has rejected the idea of any potential amnesty deal, which the country’s presidency said it would study in a bid to curb a bloody insurgency, in a statement obtained by AFP Thursday.

Abubakar Shekau, the purported head of Boko Haram who has been designated a global terrorist by the United States, claimed his group had “not committed any wrong to deserve amnesty.”

“Surprisingly, the Nigerian government is talking about granting us amnesty. What wrong have we done? On the contrary, it is we that should grant you pardon,” he said, listing what he described as the state’s “atrocities” against Muslims.

The Hausa language audio recording was distributed by email in a manner consistent with previous Boko Haram messages, and the voice was similar to that of previous Shekau statements.

President Goodluck Jonathan last week formed a panel to look at the possibility of offering an amnesty deal to the Islamists, whose insurgency has left more than 3,000 people dead since 2009, including killings by the security services.

Jonathan has come under intense pressure over the issue, with politicians from the country’s violence-torn north as well as Nigeria’s highest Muslim spiritual figure, the Sultan of Sokoto, calling for amnesty.

The panel, reportedly to be composed of national security officials, northern leaders and others, is due to report later this month.

The move has been widely debated in Nigerian media in recent days.

Boko Haram has claimed to be fighting for an Islamic state in Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer.

The group also claimed the February 19 kidnapping of a French family of seven over the border in Cameroon. Their whereabouts remain unknown.

Boko Haram’s demands however have repeatedly shifted and the group is believed to include various factions in addition to imitators.

Nigeria offered an amnesty to militants in the southern oil-producing Niger Delta region in 2009, which has been credited with greatly reducing unrest there, though oil theft has since flourished.

Violence blamed on Boko Haram has been concentrated in the mostly Muslim north.

Christian and Muslim civilians, the security services and other symbols of authority have been among the group’s victims.

Source: AFP

Photos: The First Gay African Traditional Wedding Ceremony.

The gay couple who tied the knot in a traditional Zulu and Tswana wedding while dressed in traditional attire say they will not be fazed by the criticism being aimed at them by social network users and Zulu culture experts.

Thoba Sithole, a Zulu from KwaDukuza, and Tshepo Modisane, a Tswana from Johannesburg, tied the knot on Saturday in KwaDukuza with about 200 people, including family, friends, onlookers and the media in attendance.

Sithole and Modisane, both 27, defended their wedding and said there was nothing evil or untraditional about it.

The Gay Couple Took a Kiss Professor Velaphi Mkhize, a Zulu traditional culture analyst and writer, said Zulu culture did not recognise homosexuality, therefore, traditionally, Modisane and Sithole’s marriage was void.

“In the olden days there were homosexuals, but when a gay child was born the family used to slaughter an animal to plead with the ancestors to intervene and take the evil spirit away from the child.”

“However, now the constitution recognises homosexuality and gay marriages and the biggest challenge we are facing is how do we continue to call something a taboo if it is recognised by the constitution.”

He said the marriage was an insult to Zulu forefathers because marriage was traditionally a way to expand the family. Wives were expected to give birth to children who would carry their families’ names forward. Homosexuality made this impossible, said Mkhize.

However, Sithole, an IT specialist based in Johannesburg, said:

“If being gay is evil, why did God create gay people? Gays are born gay and according to a Bible scripture we were all created by God, so I don’t see anything evil about being born gay because it means that God wanted you to be gay.”

Modisane said they did not need to justify their wedding to the public because it was only between them, and to make them happy.

“We decided to have a traditional wedding because we firstly wanted to show people that being homosexual can be part of an African culture.

“Secondly, we wanted to celebrate the love we have for each other and show people that we don’t feel ashamed for the choices we have made in our lives,” said Modisane, who works as a chartered accountant in Johannesburg.

The couple said the support they had received from their families made it easier for them to tie the knot.

“My family has always been there for me and had always been there for me even in my previous homosexual relationships,” said Modisane.

Sithole said his mother had always told him how she was looking forward to seeing him getting married to his partner.

They started dating in 2011 after they had been friends for some time.

Modisane said he was attracted to Sithole because he was a well-grounded man who loved God and was someone who could bring stability in his life.

Sithole said their next step after the wedding was buying a home and starting their own family. “We are fully committed to each other and we believe children form an important foundation in bringing stability in one’s life,” he said. “We will be adopting two kids – a boy and a girl – to be part of our family.”

Source: naijaurban

Love in the time of cornrows: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on her new novel, Americanah

The Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s new book, Americanah, is a story of romance, race and the politics of hair

Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s new book, is the story of Ifemelu, a young Nigerian who travels to America to study and stays there for 13 years before deciding to return to Lagos. The book is an atmospheric and vibrant love story – the love between Ifemelu and Obinze, the high-school sweetheart she leaves behind, the love between Ifemelu and her American boyfriend, the love she has for her young cousin Dike, whom she looks after in America, and the love of her homeland, Nigeria. It is also a novel about race and immigration and what it feels like to be black in America.


But the book’s biggest love affair seems to be Adichie’s enduring relationship with hair. Hairstyle is such a constant presence in the book that not a page goes past without a mention of it: straight weaves, box braids, cornrows, dreadlocks, afros, twists, raucous curls, kinky coils and TWAs (teeny weeny afros). Not to mention texturisers, relaxers, oils, pomades and hair butter. No character in her book gets away without having their hairstyle mentioned, and many are defined by it. And not just the girls. ‘The greying hair on the back of his head was swept forward, a comical arrangement to disguise his bald spot.’ ‘A dreadlocked white man sat next to her on the train, his hair like old twine ropes that ended in a blond fuzz.'


As Chimamanda Adichie, 36, sits before Telegraph in a hotel in London: contained, amused, sexy and intellectual, her own hair is succinctly tethered, but it looks as if, were she to free it, it would be ready to spring into action at any time.


‘I am obsessed with hair!’ she exclaims, before settling happily into a long session on the subject. ‘As you can see I have natural, negro hair, free from relaxers and things. My hair story started when I was a baby. My mother had boys and she desperately wanted a girl, a girl with hair. I came out with a lot of hair and she was thrilled. As I was growing up she would do things to my hair but what I loved the most was when she stretched it with a hot comb. I was terrified too, because when the comb touched your ear it was so painful, but I loved the idea that my hair would then be straight. So when I was three years old I already had the idea that straight hair was beautiful and my hair was ugly.’


In secondary school her hair had to be natural or in braids. Even now, Adichie says, her two nieces who go to school near Lagos have to have their hair cut short, like boys. (‘They are continually texting me, to ask me to buy them a wig. I believe strongly that we should be proud of our hair, but if my 15-year-old nieces want a straight wig, I’ll buy them a straight wig! Life is short.’)


#Telegraph.co.uk

Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher dead at 87

London (CNN) - Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a towering figure in postwar British and world politics and the only woman to become British prime minister, has died at the age of 87, her spokeswoman said Monday.

Her funeral will be at St. Paul's Cathedral, the British prime minister's office announced Monday.

Thatcher served from 1975 to 1990 as leader of the Conservative Party. She was called the "Iron Lady" for her personal and political toughness.

Thatcher retired from public life after a stroke in 2002 and suffered several strokes after that. British media reported Monday that a stroke caused her death.

She made few public appearances in her final months, missing a reception marking her 85th birthday hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron in October 2010. She also skipped the July 2011 unveiling of a statue honouring her old friend Ronald Reagan in London.

In December 2012, she was hospitalized after a procedure to remove a growth in her bladder.
#cnn