British sailor and Olympian Andrew Simpson dies after yacht capsizes!

The British Olympic sailor Andrew Simpson died on Thursday after his team's ultra-modern yacht capsized in the San Francisco bay and trapped him underwater during training for the America's Cup.

The 72-foot Artemis catamaran tipped over at 1.15pm local time, plunging its 13-strong crew into the water and trapping Simpson under the vessel's platform for about 10 minutes.

Rescuers pulled Simpson, 36, into a support boat and an officer from the San Francisco police department's marine unit tried to resuscitate him. He was declared dead about 20 minutes later, said San Francisco fire chief Joanne Hayes-White.

Simpson won a gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a crew member in the star class, and he also took silver last year at the London Games.

"The entire team is devastated by what happened," said Artemis chief executive Paul Cayard, a sailing world champion and America's Cup veteran. "Our heartfelt condolences are with Andrew's wife and family."

One other crew member was hurt but his condition was not said to be serious. The rest of the crew escaped unharmed and was taken to its nearby base at Alameda, where members were said to be in tears.

The coastguard said winds were a little above normal when the boat capsized half a mile north of Treasure Island. It was flying under a Swedish flag in preparation for the 34th America's Cup, sailing's most prestigious prize.

Simpson, nicknamed Bart, was born in Surrey, and lived in Dorset. He had temporarily moved to San Francisco for the training. "Moving the family to San Fran for 6 months is pretty hectic!!! The cup should be fun though!!" he tweeted in March.

He was recruited to the Artemis team, named after the Greek hunting goddess, as a strategist.

The crew reported glitches with the boat, which can reach speeds of 45mph, after it launched last November, according to a posting on the America's Cup website, nd it needed to be modified earlier this year.

Coast Guard Lt Jeannie Crump said the cause of the accident was unclear.

The America's Cup race is scheduled to run from July through to September. The Louis Vuitton Cup for challengers starts on 4 July, with the final in September.

Adieu!

Prince Harry visits U.S. for first time since his Las Vegas hijinks!

A buttoned-down Prince Harry joined Michelle Obama in honouring military families Thursday and toured an exhibition in Congress about land-mines, opening a weeklong U.S. visit devoted to the wounded victims of war. Shrieking onlookers gave him the pop-star treatment, but he was all royal business.

The British soldier-prince had one of America's most storied wounded warriors, the wisecracking Sen. John McCain, at his side as he viewed a display of land-mine photos, maps and mine-detection equipment, staged by a charity held dear by his late mother, Princess Diana.

As the prince entered the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building near the Capitol, he was greeted by a roar and shouts of "Harry!" from a crowd of about 500 people, nearly all of them women. They crowded a roped-off hallway and stairway with a view of the exhibit, hoisting their cellphones and tablets to get a picture. Harry didn't visibly react except to give a polite wave.

McCain, with a laugh, said he told Harry "I've never seen, in all the years I've been here, such an unbalanced gender crowd."

From there it was on to the White House for a previously unannounced visit with the first lady, Vice-President Joe Biden's wife, Jill, and military mothers and children at an afternoon tea. Harry joined with the children in helping the kids make Mother's Day gifts from tulip and rose bouquets, vegetable chips and edible dough jewelry gathered in the State Dining Room.

For the prince, the Washington settings were a world away from the Afghanistan war zone where he recently served for 20 weeks as a co-pilot gunner in an Apache attack helicopter. It was just as far removed from his hijinks in a Las Vegas hotel room last summer, when fuzzy photos got out of a naked Harry playing strip billiards.

McCain, R-Ariz., who was shot down over North Vietnam and tortured as a captive, said he told the prince that "he was probably a much better pilot than I was."

As for the prince's reputation for cutting loose on occasion, McCain joked that the British diplomatic reception and dinner later in the evening was sure to be a "wild and raucous affair."

On Friday, the prince visits Arlington National Cemetery and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center before flying to Colorado for the 2013 Warrior Games in Colorado Springs. More than 200 wounded servicemen and women from the U.S. and Britain will participate.

Harry will also visit parts of New Jersey afflicted by Superstorm Sandy and stop for events in New York City before capping his visit by playing in the Sentebale Polo Cup match in Greenwich, Conn., on Wednesday.

Diana highlighted the work of the mine-clearing charity HALO Trust when she was pictured wearing a face mask and protective clothing during a visit to a minefield being cleared by the trust in Angola in 1997. Fiona Willoughby, marketing manager of the trust, said the prince's tour of the trust's exhibit raises the profile of the issue once again.

"People have forgotten about it, and we think Prince Harry, following in his mother's footsteps, is a worthy cause and will raise the profile of what we are doing," she said.

Harry closely quizzed trust officials on mine-detection techniques and photos of amputees, keeping a sombre if animated tone despite the swooning throng held back from the exhibit area.

Ladies, women wait for Harry's arrival

The prince "seemed to be a little -- the word isn't embarrassed -- it was, I think, a normal reaction," McCain said. "I'm sure it's not the first time."

Gunmen Kidnap Ex-Premier's Son in Pakistan!

Gunmen on Thursday kidnapped candidate Ali Haider Gilani—the son of a recent Pakistani prime minister—as he campaigned for Saturday's election, in the latest attack to mar a vote that is shaping up to be the bloodiest in the country's history.

Ali Haider Gilani spoke Thursday during a campaign meeting at a house on the outskirts of Multan before his abduction by unidentified gunmen

No one claimed immediate responsibility for the attack, which left one person dead when gunmen seized Mr. Gilani in the city of Multan in southern Punjab, where he was at a rally to support his provincial legislature bid.

The Pakistani Taliban have repeatedly said they would target politicians from the three secular-leaning parties of the outgoing government coalition. Such attacks over the past month have left more than 100 people dead.

Mr. Gilani is the son of Yousuf Raza Gilani, who served as prime minister in the Pakistan Peoples Party government of President Asif Ali Zardari.

Supporters gathered Thursday at the site of Mr. Gilani's abduction.

Gunmen on a motorcycle attacked the younger Mr. Gilani and gunned down his secretary before escaping with their captive, said Malik Deharr, a prominent PPP official in Multan who served in the outgoing Punjab provincial legislature.

"We are all very sad and sorry," said Mr. Deharr. "We demand from security forces to take action and make an urgent response."

Pakistani TV stations reported from Multan that the kidnapped politician appeared to have been injured during the attack. The secretary was killed, officials said.

Officials from the PPP and its two secular coalition partners have repeatedly complained that the neutral caretaker government, which took over from the PPP-led administration to oversee the elections, hasn't provided them with enough security, constraining the party's campaigning to the benefit of its rivals.

"It's not a fair game. The level playing field is not there," said Lahore-based political analyst Salman Abid.

The Taliban haven't targeted the campaigns of the party widely predicted to emerge with the largest number of votes in Saturday's election, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, or PML-N. The insurgents also have spared the rallies of former cricket star Imran Khan, whose party may overtake the PPP as the nation's second-largest political force on Saturday, according to analysts and diplomats.

Messrs. Sharif and Khan, in return, have refrained from criticizing the Taliban and have pledged to open peace negotiations with the militants. Thursday was the last day of campaigning, and Messrs. Sharif and Khan both called massive final rallies. Mr. Khan addressed his supporters via video-link after falling down and injuring his back earlier this week.

The two brothers of the kidnapped candidate—themselves running for office—told Pakistani TV channels Thursday that the PPP wouldn't allow elections to be held in Multan if Ali Haider isn't recovered. But the party later said the election will proceed as planned.

Taliban violence has stymied PPP's campaign. The party's chairman—24-year-old Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is the son of President Zardari and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007—was supposed to spearhead its re-election bid. But he has largely stayed away from public view and is waiting out the election abroad.

Saturday's vote, if successful, would mark the first time since Pakistan's establishment in 1947 that a civilian government is succeeded by another elected administration.

Lightning strike injures 39 at party in Germany!

A lightning strike injured 39 people, eight of them severely, at a Father’s Day party in eastern Germany.

More than 500 people were attending Thursday’s event in a village near the city of Schwerin when lightning struck a group of trees and a nearby switch box on the village fairground around 1 p.m.

Police spokesman Joerg Bruhn said many visitors at the fairground suffered burns and were treated for shock. Two rescue helicopters were called to the village of Dabel as well as several ambulances.

On Father’s Day in Germany, men traditionally go on day trips or simply get together to drink lots of beer, without their families.

Imo police smash baby factory, nab impregnator, rescue 17 pregnant teenagers!

Nigeria:

Some of the pregnant teens.

Imo State Police Command recorded another success in its renewed fight against crime and criminals, following the bursting of child trafficking and baby factory syndicate in the state.

Disclosing this to newsmen Thursday evening, at the State Police Headquarters, Owerri, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Katsina, said the Command has clamped down on illegal motherless babies homes, as well as rescued 17 pregnant teenagers.

According to the Imo police boss, one of the illegal homes, Ahamefula Motherless Babies Home, located in Umuaka, Njaba local council area, is allegedly owned by a middle aged woman simply identified as “Madam One Thousand”.

Mr. Katsina equally disclosed that during the police raid, no fewer than 11 minors, who were possibly waiting to be sold to prospective buyers, were rescued by the Command.

The bizarre aspect of the police finding was that a 23-year old boy, simply identified as Oyibo, was fingered as being responsible for impregnating the expectant girls, whose ages ranged between 14 and 17.

Apart from being in varying stages of pregnancy, the girls who equally looked malnourished and not properly catered for wept uncontrollably as they were paraded by the police in Owerri.

On how the Command burst the syndicate, the Commissioner explained that the illegal babies home was successfully raided by the “Ambush Squad” after a credible tip-off.

“The prime suspect is now at large. She was was producing pure water sachets as a decoy to deceive unsuspecting members of the public about what was really going on in the premises”, the Commissioner of Police recounted.

Continuing, Mr. Katsina said: “When the police invaded the tightly secured compound, 17 minors were seen holed up in different rooms in the large compound with some of their children playing around”.

The Imo police boss equally paraded the 55-year old security man, Mr. Uzoamaka Okoli, from Nempi, Oru West local government area of the state, employed by the fleeing owner of the babies home.

The 23-year old Oyibo, who was equally paraded by the Commissioner, has allegedly confessed to being responsible for all the pregnancies.

Cleveland Kidnapping Case!

If the man accused of imprisoning three women for a decade inside his Cleveland home is convicted of the charges filed against him, it seems unlikely he will ever be released from prison. This week, prosecutors charged Ariel Castro with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. Under Ohio law, each felony charge leveled against him carries a sentence of 3 to 11 years. He’s now being held on $8 million bond.



Some may be wondering why Castro wasn’t also charged with homicide. One of his victims, Michelle Knight, reportedly told investigators she became pregnant five times while in captivity and that Castro beat and starved her each  time until she miscarried. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Ohio is one of at least 38 states whose homicide statute applies to the killing of unborn fetuses and one of at least 23 states that apply this statute to the earliest stages of pregnancy.

Building a fetal homicide case against Castro could be very difficult, although Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said Thursday his office is considering it, which could mean seeking the death penalty. Proving such a case, according to Katherine Hunt Federle, a criminal law professor at Ohio State University, typically requires expert medical testimony based on physical examinations of the woman who miscarried and the fetus itself. Prosecutors would have to first prove that the pregnancies occurred and then that Castro’s action caused them to end in miscarriage.

“There is generally a rule that you have to have some evidence that a homicide was committed, so the mere testimony of the women may not be sufficient,” says Federle. “If you think about people who have been kidnapped or placed under stress, depending on what’s happened to them, their psychological states may be poor. Repeated interviews might enable a defense lawyer down the road to suggest that these women may have not have actually recalled this information, that it was suggested to them. Everybody wants to be careful about this because their key witnesses are these three women.” So far, no detailed information has been publicly released detailing Knight’s ordeal or when her alleged pregnancies might have occurred, but any evidence that might have existed at the time may be long gone.

The first prosecution under Ohio’s fetal homicide statute was in 1996, when Gregory Robbins beat his wife, who was 8 months pregnant, causing the death of her unborn child. Outside Ohio, several high-profile criminal cases have led to the enactment of state fetal homicide laws. In North Carolina, lawmakers passed a fetal homicide law following the death of Jenna Nielsen, who was 8 months pregnant when she was stabbed outside a convenient store near Raleigh in 2007. She and her unborn son both died. In Kentucky, lawmakers passed a fetal homicide law following the death of Veronica Jane Thornsbury and her unborn child. Thornsbury was in labor and on her way to the hospital in a car when a truck struck the vehicle.

After widespread news coverage of the Laci Peterson case in California, in which Scott Peterson was eventually convicted of murdering his wife Laci and her unborn child, Congress passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004. The federal law, signed by George W. Bush, made it a federal offense to kill or injure a child in utero during the commission of another federally prosecutable violent crime. Pro-choice advocates opposed the law over concerns that its definition of the unborn as ”a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb” might be used to try to overturn laws protecting abortion rights.

As for Castro, if the existing case against him holds up in court, his chances of freedom will probably not hinge on whether he’s charged with killing unborn fetuses. “It may not matter in the long run because I suspect their goal of incarceration can be easily satisfied if they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that kidnapped these three women and held them in captivity and raped them. If he is convicted and receives the maximum sentences, he’s not going anywhere,” says Federle. “Given the amount of attention and publicity this case has had…it’s unlikely there would be a generously lenient sentence.”

Bricklayer slaughters lover for jilting him, has sex with her as she bled to death!

Nigeria:

Policemen attached to the Ogijo Police Division,Ogun state have arrested a 25-year-old bricklayer, Akinloye Anuoluwapo, for slaughtering his 21-year-old girlfriend, Rafiyat Akinyemi at her family home in Magbon, Ogijo, Ogun state.

it was gathered that Rafiyat, an OND graduate of the Lagos State Polytechnic
Ikorodu, was allegedly murdered by Akinyemi for discontinuing their relationship.

It was learnt that Anuoluwapo took advantage of Rafiyat being the only one at home to commit the crime last Wednesday. Her siblings and mother usually leave the house before 8am each working day.

The culprit subsequently sneaked into Akinyemi’s family home at about 8.30am on the day of the incident. As expected, Akinyemi was alone.

Anuoluwapo was said to have made several attempts to have sex with Akinyemi. It was in the ensuing struggle that Nafisat met her end.

Anuoluwapo, who is being detained at the Ogijo Police Division, said, “I don’t know what came over me, I just wanted us to reconcile and continue our
relationship.

“Each time we break up, I am always severely affected; I converted from Christianity to Islam because I wanted to marry her.

“I even moved from my one-room apartment to self- contained accommodation so that she would be more comfortable. My visit was meant to be for a discussion but it degenerated into a quarrel.

“Akinyemi was not even aware that I had a knife on me when I forcefully had sex with her.”

The police said Anuoluwapo used the knife to cut Akinyemi’s throat and later had sex with her while she bled.

But the estranged lover claimed that she was still alive when he had sex with her on the couch in the sitting room.

Unknown to Anuoluwapo, some neighbours had seen him while he was sneaking into the house.

It was gathered that Nafisat’s corpse was discovered at about 4pm by her mother and siblings when they returned home.

Although neighbours suspected Anuoluwapo, none of them initially came forward with information.

A police source said, “It was later, someone gave an anonymous tip to the police that Nafisat had broken up several times with Anuoluwapo.

“He said each time; Anuoluwapo would get people from her community or the mosque where she worshipped to plead with her.”

No one knew where Anuoluwapo lived or worked. He had recently relocated from his home at Segun Kehinde Street, Ogijo to the PZ estate. In a bid to locate Anuoluwapo, police detectives were said to have picked residents who lived around Akinyemi’s home for questioning. Eventually one of the residents was said to have revealed Anuoluwapo’s place of work.

A team of police detectives went to the company to arrest Anuoluwapo, but were initially refused entry.

Eventually the Divisional Police Officer, SP. Toyin Afolaogun, had to come with the Divisional Crime Officer before Anuoluwapo could be arrested,” the source said.

A frightened Anuoluwapo was said to have immediately confessed his guilt upon questioning and led police detectives to his house where he had hidden the murder weapon.

The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, confirmed the incident.

He said, “The shirt which Anuoluwapo had worn to Akinyemi’s house on the day of the murder was found hidden in a corner with blood stains on it. The knife was found in his home.

“From our investigations, Akinyemi was already dead when Anuoluwapo had sex with her. When her corpse was discovered, her legs were still spread apart and they had become stiff. Semen too was found on her private part. Akinyemi’s body was discovered exactly the way Anuoluwapo had left it when he was through.”