Iowa police say a 2-year-old boy died after a man sat on the child for allegedly taking his cellphone.

Pottawattamie County court records show 31-year-old Larry Murphy is charged with first-degree murder and child endangerment resulting in death. He’s jailed on more than $1 million bail.

Murphy’s attorney didn’t return a call Tuesday from The Associated Press.

Police allege the boy’s mother says Murphy was staying with her and her sons at a Council Bluffs motel when he became angry at the 2-year-old for taking his cellphone. She says he sat on the boy for around 20 seconds on a motel bed.
Police say Murphy is 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall and weighs 160 pounds (72.6 kilograms).

The boy became unresponsive. Investigators say he was pronounced dead at a hospital where a doctor noticed signs of asphyxiation.

Source: NY Post.

The former nurse accused of raping an impregnating an incapacitated patient in Arizona will fight a court-ordered STD and HIV test, according to his lawyers on Tuesday.

Nathan Sutherland’s lawyer, Edward Molina, asked Maricopa County Superior Judge Roger Hartsell to schedule a hearing concerning the court order.

It was originally ruled that the results be made available to the nurse’s alleged victim.
Molina argued that the testing would violate the 36-year-old’s constitution rights and pondered whether it would be easier for the victim to take the test as she is currently at a long-term care facility.

The lawyer added that since the victim gave birth in December, she has likely already been tested for STDs.

Molina referred to the request as a ‘fishing expedition’ in February.
‘They want to test him for HIV and I don’t know why they don’t just test the person they believe has it,’ he said.

A hearing on the blood test matter was scheduled for March 26. A complex case management hearing is set for May 21.
On February 5, Sutherland pleaded not guilty in an Arizona court.

Nathan Sutherland was arrested in January after DNA evidence linked him to the victim’s child.

The defendant, a licensed practical nurse who began working at the Hacienda Healthcare in Phoenix in 2012, was charged with one count each of sexual assault and abuse of a vulnerable adult.

Police started investigating after the 29-year-old woman, who they say was not in a position to give consent, unexpectedly gave birth on December 29. The patient had been at the facility since she was three.

The shock delivery prompted authorities to test the DNA of all the men who worked at the care facility.
Sutherland, a devout Christian and father-of-four, was forced to submit his DNA sample under court order.

A Ukrainian woman allegedly cut her three-week-old daughter’s throat in a jealous rage because she believed her husband loved the baby more than her.
The 21-year-old mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, killed her child when her husband left their apartment in the city of Rivne in north-western Ukraine’s Rivne Oblast region for a few minutes.

Police reports say the woman attacked her baby when her husband, 26, went out to throw away some rubbish.
When he returned to the apartment he saw that his wife’s hands were covered with blood.

The man rushed into the bedroom to check on his newborn daughter and saw her lying motionless in a pool of blood.

The shocked father called emergency services.
The man’s mother Maria Momot said: ‘He [her son] went out for a few minutes and she grabbed a kitchen knife and cut the child’s throat open.’

According to Mrs Momot, her daughter-in-law was jealous of the baby because she thought that her husband loved the child more.

She said: ‘My son and I loved the child very much. We gave her all our thoughts and care.
According to emergency services who arrived at the scene, the woman was heard asking her husband: ‘Why are you crying?’

Police found the murder weapon in the kitchen sink. The knife was still covered with the child’s blood.

Police spokesman Anton Kruk said: ‘The child died of the knife wound to its throat.

‘The mother could not explain why she did it.

Continue reading Jealous’ mother ‘kills her three-week-old daughter by slitting her throat because she thought her husband loved the child MORE →

Four more Birmingham primary schools have halted equality lessons after Muslim parents complained they were promoting homosexuality.
Leigh Trust has suspended its No Outsiders programme until an agreement with parents can be reached.

A number of schools across the Midlands have been involved in the sessions which discuss various issues surrounding the Equalities Act such as gender rights.

Earlier this month Parkfield Community School in Birmingham suspended the lessons after protests were held outside the school.
One campaigner Amir Ahmed highlighted that Muslims had felt ‘victimised’ by the lessons. However an LGBT group leader rebutted the claim and said that the programme was helping pupils at the school understand that it was ok to be different from their classmates.

In a letter obtained by the BBC, Leigh Trust said it was halting the lessons in schools until after the Islamic celebration of Ramadan, which will take place in May this year.

Schools involved in the row include Leigh Primary School, Alston Primary School, Marlborough Junior and Infants School and Wyndcliff Primary School.
Leigh Trust has yet to comment publicly regarding the halting of classes but has said that it wants to discuss the programme with parents in order to find a ‘positive way’ of teaching about the Equalities Act.

Continue reading Four more Birmingham primary schools halt equality lessons after Muslim parents complained they were promoting homosexuality →

Two brothers have been arrested in India for allegedly raping their 12-year-old sister who was later beheaded with a sickle, police say.
The girl’s uncle, 40, has also been arrested while police are now searching for the eldest brother after the body was found in the central state of Madhya Pradesh last week.

Shocked police say the case has caused such outrage that lawyers are refusing to represent the accused in the case – the latest to rock India.

The country has a grim record of sexual assaults on minors with more than 36,000 cases reported in 2016, according to latest available government data. A UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2014 said one in three rape victims in India was a minor. Almost half the abusers are known to the victims.
The accused had initially tried to put the blame on a rival family before police in Sagar district found discrepancies in their statement and realised the eldest brother had been missing.
‘That was a big clue,’ district police superintendent Amit Sanghi told AFP by phone.

‘All the men (three brothers and the uncle) were involved in raping the girl and when she threatened to tell the police, they strangled her to death and chopped off her head and dumped the body.’

Sanghi said the autopsy had confirmed the victim was gang-raped and subjected to ‘unnatural sex’.

‘I have not seen such a crime in my life. Even lawyers have said they don’t want to represent the accused in this case.’

The high rates of assault continue despite an overhaul of laws in the wake of a high-profile fatal gang rape of a Delhi student in 2012 that sparked mass protests and a tightening of the law.
That crime shone a spotlight on the rising levels of violence against women in India, and saw the introduction of tough penalties for offenders and accelerated trials through court.

Daily Mail.

The Senate on Tuesday approved N30, 000 as the new national minimum wage with an appeal to the Federal Government to start the implementation immediately to prevent the organised labour from embarking on strike to demand payment.

The acting Chairman of the Senate ad hoc committee on the National Minimum Wage Bill, Senator Francis Alimikhena, while delivering the report, said a fine of N75,000 would be imposed on firms that refused to comply with the new minimum wage.
The panel also recommended an urgent review of the revenue sharing formula to enable the states to pay the new minimum wage.

The committee urged the ministers of Finance and Budget and National Planning to, as a matter of urgency, compute and forward the actual amount required for the new minimum wage to the National Assembly so that it could be included in the 2019 budget.
The panel also recommended an urgent review of the revenue sharing formula to enable the states to pay the new minimum wage.

The committee urged the ministers of Finance and Budget and National Planning to, as a matter of urgency, compute and forward the actual amount required for the new minimum wage to the National Assembly so that it could be included in the 2019 budget.
Senator Barnabas Gemade noted that the bill was passed promptly to show that the National Assembly was committed to workers’ welfare.

He said all states could pay the new minimum wage because the governors had enough money to buy votes during elections.
Under the current sharing arrangement, the Federal Government takes 56 per cent, states receives 24 per cent while the local governments share the remaining 20 per cent.

The Senate in the committee of the whole approved all the recommendations contained in the report.

Senate President, Bukola Saraki, urged the Federal Government to pay the new minimum wage without delay instead of waiting for the workers to go on strike before implementation.

The Lagos State Government, on Tuesday, cleared the Chinese restaurant accused by some Nigerians of racism even as yet another Nigerian, who was barred from entering the restaurant riased an outcry.

The government’s position which was made known via a press statement issued by the Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Steve Ayorinde, said that investigations by its officers sent to “investigate the veracity of the claim” showed that the allegations were false.
“The two officers who went there on Monday did so incognito and found the allegations to be false. The officers were served without any questions or discrimination. They also took photographs without being noticed.

“Our officers also observed that the restaurant had a number of Nigerians working inside there and did similarly observe that pepper soup, a Nigerian delicacy is also on the menu. More, importantly, the restaurant has been registered with the Lagos State Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture since 2016 as required by law.”
The ministry which regulates eateries, restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality facilities in Lagos promised to conduct further investigations.

Continue reading Lagos govt defends racist Chinese restaurant →

Hundreds of protesters clashed with Indian security forces in parts of Indian-administered Kashmir after police said a man detained over a security investigation died in police custody.

Rizwan Asad Pandit, a 29-year-old chemistry teacher, was arrested as part of “terror case investigation”, the police said in a statement on Tuesday. “The person died in police custody,” the police said, adding an investigation into the cause of his death was under way.
Pandit’s family condemned his death as a “cold-blooded murder” as crowds gathered in the southern Pulwama district in protest. Security forces fired tear gas at protesters as authorities suspended internet services in the region.

Mubashir Asad, Pandit’s brother, said police arrested Pandit at his home in the Awantipora village late on Sunday night. “They said he would be released soon. My brother was not involved in anything. This is a cold-blooded murder,” he said.
Tensions in Kashmir, a region claimed by both India and Pakistan, have been high since a suicide bombing killed 42 Indian soldiers in the Pulwama district in February.
New Delhi blamed Islamabad for harbouring the armed group, Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) that claimed responsibility for the attack, and launched a retaliatory air raid inside Pakistan, a move that brought the nuclear-armed neighbours to the brink of war.
India also banned the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) political party in Kashmir and arrested some 300 of the group’s leaders and activists.
A senior police official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Rizwan was detained over the Pulwama attack. “We had some information that he knew how to make explosives and suspected his role in the recent attack,” the official said.

Following Rizwan’s death, separatist leaders in Indian-administered Kashmir called for a shutdown in the region.

Continue reading Clashes in Kashmir after teacher dies in police custody →

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has admitted in evidence a statement made by the late Justin Erukaa, before his death, in the ongoing N2.2 billion fraud trial of former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose.

Erukaa was personal assistant to Musiliu Obanikoro, who is testifying against the former governor.

In a short ruling yesterday, Justice Mojisola Olatoregun admitted Erukaa’s statement and marked it as Exhibit J.

The second defence counsel, Mr. Olalekan Ojo (SAN), had at the previous hearing tendered the statement Erukaa made to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the course of investigating the matter.
Ojo said Erukaa’s statement was relevant to the case, adding that it could be admitted in the absence of the deceased.

“In law, the first litmus test of admissibility is relevance. Obanikoro said in his testimony that he sent Erukaa on errands, including to collect $1 million and he came and met him in Ekiti,” Ojo had told the court.

After the judge had admitted Erukaa’s statement in evidence, the case proceeded with further cross-examination of Obanikoro, the fifth witness, to testify for the EFCC against Fayose.
While fielding questions from Ahmed Tafa, who stood in for Ojo, Obanikoro reiterated that he was into farming, with his farms in Lagos, Badagry and Ogun State.

He also claimed that MOB Integrated Limited is his son’s company.

When asked by Tafa if he knew that staff of MOB Integrated Limited were signatories to the bank account of Sylvan Mcmanara Ltd, Fayose’s co-accused, Obanikoro said, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Hearing on the case continues today.

Culled from The Guardian newspaper.