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Tuesday 14 May 2013

Philadelphia Doctor, Kermit Gosnell guilty of three murders in late-term abortions


Dr Kermit Gosnell, 72, was acquitted on another charge of killing a fourth baby, who let out a whimper before he cut its neck, prosecutors said.
He was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter of an adult patient who died of an overdose.
The case was seized on by both sides in the US debate over abortion.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Gosnell.
He performed thousands of abortions over a career spanning three decades. Officials said his medical practice earned him about $1.8m (£1.1m) a year.
'House of horrors'
Former staff members of the clinic testified that he had routinely performed illegal late-term abortions past Pennsylvania's 24-week limit.

Start Quote

Are you human?”
Ed CameronProsecutor
The trial heard how Gosnell would deliver babies alive then use scissors to "snip" - as he referred to it - their spines.
Among the untrained staff who helped to perform the terminations was Gosnell's wife, Pearl. She pleaded guilty to a number of charges and testified against him.
The trial heard that one of the babies was almost 30 weeks when aborted, and had grown so large that Gosnell joked it could "walk to the bus". A second foetus was said to have clung to life for about 20 minutes.
A third was born in a toilet and seen moving before a clinic employee severed its spinal cord, according to testimony.
Gosnell's lawyer, Jack McMahon, had argued that none of the foetuses was born alive. Any movement was posthumous twitching or spasms, he said.
Dr Kermit Gosnell is seen during an interview with the Philadelphia Daily News at his attorney's office in Philadelphia 8 March 2010 photoDefence lawyers for Kermit Gosnell said he was targeted because of his race
The attorney branded prosecutors "racist" for pursuing his client, who is black. Gosnell did not testify and no witnesses were called in his defence.
Prosecutors said Gosnell had run a filthy "house of horrors" with unqualified staff - including those who administered a lethal dose of sedatives to Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old refugee from Nepal.
Defence lawyers had argued the abortion patient's 2009 death was a result of unforeseen complications.
Prosecutor Ed Cameron said to Gosnell during closing arguments: "Are you human? To med these women up and stick knives in the backs of babies?"
"He created an assembly line with no regard for these women whatsoever," Mr Cameron had said.
Severed feet
Officials said a raid of the clinic, in a poor section of West Philadelphia, had turned up bags and bottles of foetal remains, including severed feet.
The clinic also had bloodstained furniture, dirty medical tools and cats roaming the premises.
This undated photo released by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office shows Karnamaya Mongar, left, and her husband, Mr Mongar,Karnamaya Mongar (left) died of a sedative overdose at the clinic
During the trial, Judge Jeffrey Minehart threw out three other murder charges involving aborted foetuses.
The jury was earlier deadlocked on two counts against Gosnell, but did not specify which of the multiple counts.
After the verdict was read on Monday, Gosnell appeared calm, the Associated Press news agency reports.
The jury will return next week to hear evidence on whether he should face the death penalty.
The trial became a cudgel for those on both sides of the US abortion debate.
Anti-abortion activists said the case exposed the grim reality of the procedure, and accused media of ignoring the case because of liberal bias.
But abortion rights groups warned it showed what would happen if laws on such procedures were tightened, driving desperate women to unregulated backstreet clinics.
The case also exposed failings by Pennsylvania's health authorities.
Officials had failed to conduct routine inspections of all of its abortion clinics for 15 years by the time Gosnell's operation was raided and closed more than two years ago.
Two top state health department officials were sacked, and Pennsylvania imposed tougher rules for clinics.
Bbc.co.uk

Monday 13 May 2013

Jay-Z To Hit Lagos October 7

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Jay-Z has announced the dates for his African tour, with the rapper set to hit 7 African cities, including Lagos on the 7th of October.
According to Billboard, the tour kicks off on September 9 in Poland and will see the rap legend perform at Accra, Lagos, Cape Town and Dar Es Salaam, among other African cities.
The dates are: Oct. 4: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Diamond Jubilee)Oct. 6: Accra, Ghana (Accra Conference Center)Oct. 7: Lagos, Nigeria (Ocean View)Oct. 9: Luanda, Angola (Cine Karl Max)Oct. 11: Cape Town, South Africa (Belleville Velodrome)Oct. 13: Durban, South Africa (ABSA Stadium Outer Fields)Oct. 14: Johannesburg (Coca Cola Dome)
#informationnigeria

19 people wounded in a shooting at a Mother's Day parade in New Orleans






Bystanders rushed to help those injured in the shooting



BBC - Nineteen people have been wounded in a shooting at a Mother's Day parade in the US city of New Orleans, police say.


The victims included two children who were grazed by bullets. Police say most injuries are not life-threatening,


It is unclear what sparked the shooting in the city's 7th Ward on Sunday afternoon. Police say three suspects were seen fleeing the area.


The incident happened at about 14:00 (19:00 GMT) at the intersection of Frenchmen and Villere streets.


"Shots were fired with different guns," a police statement said.


"Immediately after the shooting our officers saw three suspects running from the scene."






The statement said 10 men, seven women, a 10-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were wounded by gunfire.


The shooting happened at what is known as a second-line parade - an impromptu community procession in which people dance down the street behind the official parade.


About 200 people were in the area at the time.


"It appears that these two or three people, just for a reason unknown to us, started shooting at, towards, or in the crowd," Police Supt Ronal Serpas told reporters earlier.


"It was over in just a couple of seconds."


The BBC's Jane Little in Washington says New Orleans has a high rate of gun crime.


The area where the shooting happened is a poor neighbourhood that is still recovering from the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, she adds.

Thursday 9 May 2013

Man Goes Haywire In Lagos, Stabbing People At Sight


Hell was let loose recently in Lagos when a 30-year-old man identified as Kehinde Akinpelu ran amok, armed with a sharp knife, threatening to kill anybody at sight.  The incident which took place at Oloja area of Bariga in Lagos made people living in the street to scamper for safety in different directions.
Unfortunately, a 69-year-old woman, Titilayo Adekoya who lives at number 27 in that street could not escape before the man pounced on her and stabbed her severally.  It took the timely intervention of a team of policemen on patrol and agile neighbours to stop the man from severing her body into pieces.
The daughter of the victim, Adebimpe Adekoya, a nurse, told Crime Alert that her mother escaped being butchered by whiskers that fateful day.  According to her,  “I was seated with my mother at the corridor of our apartment around 12noon that fateful day, when all of a sudden, a man we later got to know as Kehinde Akinpelu, ran into the compound holding a sharp knife in one of his hands and shouting, ‘I will kill every body here today’.
In confusion, everyone around scampered for safety and I joined them. But it was rather late for my aged mother who was tired as a result of the fasting she was about concluding.  The man caught up with her and before anyone could come to her aid, he pushed her to the floor and stabbed her at the back of her left hand.
He was about stabbing her further but for the timely intervention of some men in the neighborhood who quickly organized themselves and came to her rescue.  Otherwise,  it would have been a different story because from the way he held her to the floor,  he was actually bent on stabbing her to death.
The men caught up with him, held him down, and disarmed him; it was a big struggle for them but they managed to overpower him. Luckily, for us, some police men were patrolling the area, so we called their attention to the situation on ground. They came and the man was handed over to them, while Mama was rushed to a nearby clinic.”
Wondering what could be the motive behind Kehinde’s action that very day, Bimpe stated,  “that day was the first time I set my eyes on him, no member of this family knew him before then, my brother was also around that very day, none of us knew him before that day, so his actions left every one wondering.
It was after he was arrested that some members of his family went to the police station where he is being detained to plead for leniency in handling the case, saying that he is a marijuana addict and mentally deranged.
But the police told them to produce a medical  prove to that effect before their plea can be considered. Since then, they have not provided any.
#vanguard

Wednesday 8 May 2013

Pastor, others feared dead as church building collapses


A Pastor and an unknown number of construction others are feared dead after a Four Square Gospel Church building under construction suddenly came down in the Ojodu Berger area of Lagos, South-West Nigeria.
The storey building situated on No. 9, Bashiru Street, was being converted to a three-story before it collapsed around 3:30 p.m. yesterday.
A man was found dead but a survivor, Adewale Oduleye, who was working in the building before he went to get food and water for his fellow workers, said this morning that the Pastor of the church, whose name could not be immediately ascertained, and several workers were inside the building when it collapsed. He said that there were six people in the group he was working with before he went in search of food and water.
News Express was told that a survivor was taken from the collapsed building around 1 this morning by the rescue team comprising officials of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Lagos Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), the Police, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Fire Service and the Lagos State Ambulance Services (LASAMBUS).
Just as this report was being filed, a young man was rescued alive from the rubble. A large crowd is presently at the scene even as rescue workers intensify efforts to see if more persons could be brought out alive.
Photo by Rukevwe Onoharigho shows the rescued man being carried away . . . this afternoon at Ojodu Berger, Lagos.
Source News Express