London couple who murdered nanny get life sentences

A couple who tortured their French nanny before killing her and throwing her body on a bonfire have been sentenced to life in prison.

Sabrina Kouider, 35, and her partner Ouissem Medouni, 40, were found guilty last month of murdering 21-year-old Sophie Lionnet at their home in Wimbledon, south-west London, last September. The trial heard they had a deluded belief she was in league with Mark Walton, the ex-Boyzone band member turned music mogul, with whom Kouider once had a relationship.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Nicholas Hilliard said there was no excuse for the “horrible cruelty” and “humiliation” they inflicted on Lionnet during taped interrogations before her death.

Dbanj loses his son Daniel D'Third at just 13-month old

The most painful thing to happen to any parent has happened to Nigerian musician, Dbanj

The music star who arrived Los Angeles two days ago to attend the 2018 BET Awards is reported to have lost his only son, Daniel D'Third who celebrated his 1st birthday just one month ago.
Dbanj's son, who he welcomed with his wife, Lineo Didi Kilgrow, last year May, drowned at the family residence in Ikoyi today June 24th. D'banj wasn't at home at the time. The little boy's body has reportedly since been moved to a morgue in GRA.

Shocking trade in stolen UK passports: How gangs sell them for £2,500 – so criminals and terrorists can sneak in to the country

A disturbing trade in stolen British passports is exposed today by the Daily Mail.

Swiped by criminal gangs in Western Europe, they are flown to Istanbul or Athens for sale by people smugglers.

Security experts said owning a genuine British passport was like ‘winning the lottery’ for jihadis and criminals – allowing them to slip across borders undetected.

In response to the Mail’s findings, MPs called for action to address Britain’s ‘shocking vulnerability’ to potentially dangerous illegals.

Our investigation reveals that British citizens are selling their passports to be bought by migrants of similar appearance.

And fake EU identity cards that can be used to enter the UK are also being made to order within three days in the Balkans.

The Mail bought a UK passport for £2,500 from Abu Ahmad, a people-smuggling kingpin in Turkey. It had been stolen from a Milton Keynes man working in Brussels.

Ukraine Roma camp attack leaves one dead

One person has been killed in an attack on a Roma camp in western Ukraine late on Saturday night.

A masked group armed with batons and other weapons targeted the camp on the outskirts of the city of Lviv shortly before midnight, according to police.

A 24-year-old man died of stab wounds, while four others - including a 10-year-old boy - were injured.

It is the latest in a series of attacks on Ukraine's Roma community (also known as gypsies).

Seven suspects aged 16 and 17 have been arrested, as well as a 20-year-old accused of planning the attack.

Ukraine's national police force and Ministry of Internal Affairs have launched a criminal investigation into the "deliberate murder", which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova has asked the interior minister to personally oversee the investigation and to arrange temporary accommodation for the victims.

Lewis Hamilton retakes championship lead after dominating win at French Grand Prix... as title rival Sebastian Vettel's clumsy first lap collision with Valtteri Bottas

Lewis Hamilton is back in charge of the world championship after Sebastian Vettel’s mistake at the start of the French Grand Prix.

With a new Mercedes engine, Hamilton was dominant all weekend, taking a crushing victory from pole position. His lead over Vettel, who finished fifth, is 14 points.

Vettel has shown a tendency in the past 12 months to make mistakes at important moments, and so it was again. The German got away from the line well but locked up around the first corner and banged into Valtteri Bottas as they vied for second place at 210mph.

World Cup 2018 fixtures and results so far: Every match, kick-off time and venue

GROUP STAGES
Thursday, June 14

Russia 5-0 Saudi Arabia - Moscow (Luzhniki) 4pm

Friday, June 15

Egypt 0-1 Uruguay Ekaterinburg 1pm

Morocco 0-1 Iran St Petersburg 4pm

Portugal 3-3 Spain Sochi 7pm

Germany building explosion injures 25

German police say 25 people have been injured, four severely, in an explosion that destroyed a several-story building in the western city of Wuppertal.

The explosion tore through the building shortly before midnight, police said, leaving parts of the structure burning.

Firefighters rescued four severely injured people and 21 more were treated at the scene for light injuries.

Police said firefighters were still tackling the blaze, while the cause of the explosion was being investigated.

The blast left a large hole where the building used to be, with flats either side in danger of collapse and vehicles crushed by debris.

Turkish voters head to the polls to decide whether to keep Erdogan in power

Millions of Turks are heading to the polls in presidential and parliamentary elections to decide whether to allow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to continue his 15 years in power and to preserve his party’s majority in parliament.

Turnout is expected to be as high as 85 per cent as energised supporters of both Mr Erdogan and his opponents cast their ballots in the first election since Turkey’s constitution was changed to give the president sweeping new powers.

Mr Erdogan goes into voting day ahead in the polls but facing the most serious election challenge since he first came to power in 2003.

It is not clear if he will be pass the 50 per cent vote threshold he needs to avoid a one-on-one runoff election against Muharrem Ince, the leader of the centre-left Republican People’s Party (CHP). The runoff would take place July 8.

Polling stations close at 3pm UK time and results are expected around 8pm UK time.

Mr Ince and other opposition leaders have warned that Mr Erdogan’s supporters may try to rig the results to keep the Turkish president in power.

By Sunday afternoon, opposition parties were already claiming that Mr Erdogan’s allies had attempted to stuff ballot boxes in the rural district of Suruc near the Syrian border. Videos appeared to show a man opening a ballot box there.

TODD KOLHKEPP CASE: CONFESSIONS OF THE S.C. SERIAL KILLER

A woman found chained in a storage container. Her captor: a successful realtor who confessed to seven murders -- a double life beyond belief. Now, "48 Hours" has the story behind the story. The court has just released hundreds of documents, photographs and even hours of videotape that reveal, in stunning detail, a serial killer's journey into darkness.

"I've never done anything to anybody who didn't have it coming," Kohlhepp tells detectives.
This bizarre and frightening story began Labor Day weekend 2016, when 30-year-old Kala Brown and her 32-year-old boyfriend, Charles David Carver, went missing near Spartanburg.

Dan Herren: Kala Brown is a very good friend of mine … she's really a wonderful person. …She always wants to please people.

Dan Herren: One day Kala met Charlie … she said they had a love that went beyond anything superficial.

Dan Herren: I found out they were missing on Labor Day weekend … after searching for her for two months … I then got a text message from another good friend of mine and she said, they found Kala—she's alive.

But her boyfriend Charlie was not with her. Kala Brown told her rescuers that Todd Kohlhepp, her captor, had killed Charlie almost immediately. Kala said she had witnessed Charlie's murder.

Joanne Shiflet: Charles David Carver is my son. He is my firstborn [in tears]. He could bring a smile to the saddest person. He loved to laugh.

Charlie Carver operated a printer at a local business. His father, Chuck, says he was a gentle soul.

A nother popular US rapper, Jimmy Wopo shot dead

Another popular US rapper, Jimmy Wopo has been fatally shot in the Pittsburgh neighbourhood he helped make famous.
He was 21 years old.

CNN reports that police said they found Wopo and another man shot inside a car shortly before 4:30 p.m. in Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighbourhood.
The vehicle was in the middle of the street and had been struck by gun bullets several times.
Both men in the vehicle were transported to a local hospital where the rapper later died.
Police said the other victim, who was not identified, was transported in stable condition.
Police said the shooting is currently being investigated and initial reports indicate it was an isolated incident.
Wopo died the same day fellow young rapper XXXTentacion was gunned downduring an apparent robbery in Florida.
Born Travon Smart, Wopo first came to fame with his 2016 song “Elm Street,” which documented his life in his beloved hometown.

NEWSExtremist reveals how he wanted to kill UK prime minister, May

England’s Old Bailey central criminal court in London on Tuesday heard how an extremist plotted a suicide attack on British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman, 20, allegedly wanted to make “big news” by storming Downing Street as May spoke outside her office.

Rahman, who said he was fully prepared to die in the attack, was arrested in November last year.

“Before his arrest prevented it, he was, he believed, just days away from his objective, which was no less than a suicide attack, by blade and explosion, on Downing Street and, if he could, upon the Prime Minister Theresa May herself,” Guardian quoted prosecutor Mark Heywood as saying.

In a chat with an undercover security service agent on the Telegram messaging app, Rahman said: “I want to do a suicide bomb on parliament. I want to attempt to kill Theresa May.”

“My objective is to take out my target. Nothing less than the death of the leaders of parliament.”

He told an undercover police officer that he would make a “10-second sprint” for the door of 10 Downing Street, with his main objective to “take her head off”.

The defendant is also accused of helping his friend Mohammad Aqib Imran, 22, join the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria by recording a sponsorship video.

Heywood said the two men shared the “warped ideology” of Islamic State.

Rahman denied two counts of preparing terrorist acts.

workplaces are ‘concerned’ about dealing with legal weed

More than half of Canadian businesses are concerned or “very concerned” with the upcoming legalization of cannabis, a new report by the Conference Board of Canada claims.

The findings state that employers’ top concerns include workplace safety, impairment or intoxication and increased use of cannabis in the workplace.

You’ve got some that are feeling, you know we’re going to be fine. You’ve got others where all the time in the world wouldn’t allow them to feel comfortable. What organizations are coming to terms with more and more is that the change is coming, it’s imminent and that they’re not going to have all the answers,” said Bryan Benjamin, with the Conference Board of Canada.

The report states that employers will be instrumental in shaping the practices around cannabis use in the workplace, which seems to be the very thing that’s making them nervous.

“Organizations are generally still scratching their heads,” said Benjamin.

On Tuesday evening, the Senate voted 52-29 to approve the government’s newest version of Bill C-45, the marijuana legalization bill. Bill C-45 now moves to royal assent, the final step in the legislative process, meaning that cannabis could officially be legal in Canada by August or early September.

According to Benjamin, organizations will likely have to educate their employees about cannabis and the company’s position on usage largely on their own, depending on the nature of the industry. In safety-sensitive organizations, for example, where employees are operating heavy machinery or driving long distances, regular drug testing is being explored as an option to curb cannabis use at work.
In office environments, on the other hand, managers may have to find other methods for dealing with intoxication at work and creating a safe environment for employees to ask questions.
“[Organizations should recognize] that months and even years post-legalization, they’re going to need to be able to adapt as more information becomes available, to potentially implement new policies to even rewrite them as they learn more. So, I don’t think any amount of time would get organizations all the way there,” Benjamin concluded.

At a meeting of the World Cannabis Congress in Saint John, N.B., last week, concerns were expressed that Canadian employers are not ready for legal weed. Jason Fleming, vice-president of human resources for Ontario marijuana producer MedReleaf, said there’s still a lack of definitive testing, and many employers have not educated staff on new policies.

“Employers are having to write policies and have to prepare, but in many cases they are still using really outdated, anecdotal information,” he said at the two-day event in Saint John.

Canada legalises recreational cannabis use

Canada's parliament has passed a law legalising the recreational use of marijuana nationwide.

The Cannabis Act passed its final hurdle on Tuesday in a 52-29 vote in the Senate. The bill controls and regulates how the drug can be grown, distributed, and sold.

Canadians will be able to buy and consume cannabis legally as early as this September.
The country is the second worldwide to legalise the drug's recreational use.

Uruguay became the first country to legalise the sale of cannabis for recreational use in December 2013, while a number of US states have also voted to permit it.
Cannabis possession first became a crime in Canada in 1923 but medical use has been legal since 2001.

Kanye West Crowns Billboard 200 & Post Malone Moves to No. 1 on Hot 100

Kanye West's Ye launches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated June 16), marking his record-tying eighth consecutive leader and sparking his first week at No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart.

Plus, Post Malone notches his second No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Psycho," featuring Ty Dolla $ign, who earns his first.

1. As West's Ye rules the Billboard 200, all seven songs from the set debut in the Hot 100's top 40. Click here for the rundown.

2. From The Beatles to JAY-Z to Bruce Springsteen and more, West ranks among the acts with the most No. 1 albums in the Billboard 200's history. Click here for a look at the all-time leaders.



3. The soundtrack to The Greatest Showman becomes 2018's first million-selling album in U.S., according to Nielsen Music. Click here for this week's Billboard 200 Chart Moves.

medical marijuana can save lives - isn't it time to make it legal?

In a ward at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Billy Caldwell’s life hangs in the balance. Billy is 12 years old, autistic and severely epileptic. His illness has become a life-and-death stand-off between Charlotte Caldwell, his mother, and the Home Office: last Monday, she flew into Heathrow from Canada with supply of cannabis oil in her bag which was confiscated at customs. Caldwell insists it is the only treatment that has ever brought her son’s frightening condition under control and without it he will surely die.

Billy was rushed into hospital in the early hours of Saturday morning after suffering a severe fit following the withdrawal of his medicine. "It is beyond cruelty.



Colorado Politics comments on the study and it’s amazing findings. Researchers found that in the nine states where medical cannabis is legal, painkiller prescriptions, anti-anxiety medication and antidepressant use dropped remarkably. Anti-nausea medication prescriptions fell by 17%, anti depressants by 13% and anti- seizure and psychosis medicines dropped by 12%