Russian suspect in $4B Bitcoin fraud is sued in California; US, Russia seek his extradition from Greece

A Russian suspect linked to a $4 billion Bitcoin fraud case -- whose extradition from Greece is sought by U.S. authorities -- has now been hit with a civil lawsuit in California.

The U.S. is after Alexander Vinnik and his digital currency exchange company, BTC-e, over his alleged role in the fraud case.

Federal prosecutors charged him in 2017 with stealing Bitcoins from other virtual exchanges. U.S. authorities now seek to recover penalties of $100 million from Vinnik and his company, Bloomberg reported.

According to a prosecutors’ statement, Vinnik’s company is incorporated in Cyprus, or the Seychelles, or even both. Californian users, in addition to users from other places, used the exchange to trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

Vinnik remains detained in Greece as he continues to fight the U.S. extradition request. Russia, meanwhile, is also seeking his extradition, with Vinnik’s lawyers saying in 2017 that he wouldn’t contest the Russian request.

UK-Based Nigerian Student Drowns In River Thames

A 23-year-old UK-based Nigerian student has lost his life.

According to reports, the young man who has been identified as Jonathan Adebanjo drowned in River Thames on Tuesday evening.

The deceased had gone to the river with friends at Shadwell Basin.

Jonathan had gone out to swim due to the extremely hot weather.

The Nigerian art student was among the three who drowned in the Thames in three hours after a 47-year-old swimmer died in Kingston and another person vanished in the water at Waterloo Bridge.

The deceased’s sister, Tundun, 22, said:

Ransomware is a 'best seller' on underground hacker forums

Ransomware is a hit with hackers, according to a new study.

In the study “Bestsellers in the Underground Economy: Measuring Malware Popularity by Forum,” Recorded Future’s Insikt Group analyzed over 3.9 million posts about malware from underground forums on the dark and open web during a 12 month period ending in May of this year.

Ransomware ranked as the top malware category mentioned in the forums. “We believe this reflects a growing number of low-level actors developing and sharing generic ransomware on underground forums,” Recorded Future said in the study.

The study also noted that most ransomware requires "an exploit kit, phishing email, or brute-forced credentials, to install the malware on a victim host before it can be run."

In the U.S. this year ransomware has proved to be an effective tool for extracting money from cities and counties, as underscored in a report in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal.

For example, LaPorte County in Indiana paid attackers approximately $130,000 while Lake City, Florida paid out about $460,000 to unlock government data after the “Ryuk” attacks -- though both attacks were covered mostly by insurance. And Baltimore was hit by a devastating ransomware attack.

Louisiana policemen fired over Facebook post suggesting Ocasio-Cortez be shot

A Louisiana policeman who suggested on Facebook that high-profile U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez needed to be shot was fired on Monday, along with a second officer who "liked" his post.

Officers Charles Rispoli, a 14-year veteran of the Gretna Police Department who made the social media comment on Thursday, and Angelo Varisco, who "liked" it, were terminated following a swift internal investigation, Chief Arthur Lawson told a news conference.

"This incident we feel has been an embarrassment to our department. These officers acted in a manner which was unprofessional, alluding to a violent act to be conducted a sitting U.S. congresswoman," Lawson said.

He said an internal investigation had found that both men were in violation of the police department's social media policy, on which they had been trained. The department would consider further instruction on the issue for the rest of its employees, Lawson said.

The incident came just days after U.S. President Donald Trump touched off a furore by tweeting that Ocasio-Cortez and three of her colleagues in Congress, all women of colour, should "go back" where they came from if they were unhappy in the United States.

‘The Lion King’ Review: Disney’s Remake Is a Disastrous Plunge into the Uncanny Valley

Unfolding like the world’s longest and least convincing deepfake, Jon Favreau’s (almost) photorealistic remake of “The Lion King” is meant to represent the next step in Disney’s circle of life. Instead, this soulless chimera of a film comes off as little more than a glorified tech demo from a greedy conglomerate — a well-rendered but creatively bankrupt self-portrait of a movie studio eating its own tail.

With the possible exception of 2015’s “Cinderella,” which was touched with just enough magic to feel like a new wrinkle on an old fairy tale, all of Disney’s live-action rehashes have been faint echoes of their animated predecessors. But “The Lion King” isn’t an echo, it’s a stain. This zombified digital clone of the studio’s first original cartoon feature is the Disney equivalent of Gus Van Sant’s “Psycho.”

Unlike the rest of the Disney’s latest rehashes, “The Lion King” isn’t live-action: Favreau, who previously inched towards this same technological asymptote with his playful update of “The Jungle Book” in 2016, has made a fully animated film working overtime to disguise itself as an episode of “Planet Earth.”

Marvel to Release ‘Black Widow’ Starring Scarlett Johansson in May 2020

Saturday night at Comic-Con 2019, Marvel Studios revealed its “Black Widow” solo film starring Scarlett Johansson will be released on May 1, 2020. The film also stars Florence Pugh, David Harbour and Rachel Weisz.

Johansson’s Black Widow is a spy and an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. She debuted in Marvel’s “Iron Man 2” and has since appeared in all three “Avengers” films, as well as “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Captain America: Civil War” as a core member of the superhero team.

Complicating the solo film is, of course, the fact that the character died, apparently permanently, in “Avengers: Endgame.” In the film, she and Hawkeye traveled to Vormir to acquire the Soul Infinity Stone, which requires a death in order to be summoned. After a tearful conversation between the two, followed by a melee in which they each competed to die, Black Widow jumped to her death, allowing Hawkeye to take the stone.

Davido Dragged To Court Over alleged N4, 000,000 (Four Million Naira) Fraud

Osun State born Nigerian hip pop singer David Adedeji Adeleke aka DAVIDO has been dragged before Igbosere Magistrate Court 2 Lagos State over an alleged fraud of N4, 000,000.00 (Four Million Naira).
The matter which came up for mentioning on the 23rd of May, 2019 as No 16 on the case list at Magistrate Court 2 Igbosere. Listed as Defendants in the suit marked MCL/702/19 are: David Adedeji Adeleke (Davido) – his Personal Assistant: Busari Idris Temitiope (Alias Aloma) and; Davido Music Worldwide Limited music label.

When the matter was called, none of the Defendants, including Davido was in Court, neither were they represented by their lawyers. Counsel to the Claimant Alabh George Turnah, (MON) informed the Court that the Defendants according to the bailiff of the Court, refused to accept service of the originating processes and pleaded the Court for an order for substituted service, which the Court granted.

Chicago Town Offering One Bride The Chance To Marry In Pizza Wedding Dress

For most people, weddings are all about tradition: the church, the vows, the white dress.

But if you fancy doing something a little different - and dare I say, cheesy - then Chicago Town might have just the package.

The pizza company is running a competition for soon-to-be-weds, with the winners claiming a pizza-based wedding package.

The star attraction of said package is a pizza wedding dress. The dress has a long and elegant train like your typical bridal gown, but instead of being pure and white, it has a highly detailed print of a pepperoni pizza on it, complete with a thick crust trim. Nice.

The dress is paired off with a matching pizza bouquet and the couple will also get a six-tier pizza cake to cut into... Now it doesn't get any more romantic or delicious than that.

If you're wondering what kind of loved-up loons would be interested in such a wedding package, the safe money would suggest it would have to be a couple who eat pizza at least four times a week. However, the competition may also appeal to those who aren't vain but are short on cash, as the wedding package also includes a honeymoon to Chicago. That dress is starting to look a little less hideous now, isn't it?

A spokesman for Chicago Town said the dress was 'loosely modelled on Rihanna's iconic 2018 Met Gala dress,' with 'loosely' clearly the crucial word here.

If your main question is what on earth inspired Chicago Town to run this competition in the first place, the simple answer is: a poll of 2,000 Brits.

Man Exonerated After Serving 20 Years In Prison Thanks To Genetic Genealogy

A man in the US has been exonerated after serving 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, thanks to the help of genetic genealogy - a technique that compares unknown DNA evidence to public genetic databases to identify suspects through their family members.

Christopher Tapp was sentenced in 1998 for the rape and murder of Idaho teenager Angie Dodge - despite the fact his DNA did not match evidence found at the crime scene.

Instead, he had been convicted based on a confession he late retracted, along with the theory that multiple people had been involved in the crime.

Decades after proclaiming his innocence - and saying his confession was coerced - Tapp was finally exonerated on Wednesday after genetic genealogy was used to find a new suspect in Dodge's murder.

As he left court, Tapp told reporters: "I hope that things get learned from this mistake and I hope things get changed."

He continued: "I'm glad I was able to come out the other end and still smile and still be happy.

Footage From Cockpit Shows Moment Boeing 737 Crashed Into Pacific Ocean

The video was released by the Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (PNG AIC) and is taken from the cockpit of an Air Niugini plane that crashed 1,500ft from a runway in Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, last September.

One man was killed in the crash and nine other passengers were injured, with the subsequent investigation finding that the pilots ignored numerous 'pull up' warning lights on their descent.

The report into the crash by the PNG AIC said the captain and first officer ignored a total of 17 audible warnings that they were flying too low.

The report read: "The crew were fixated on the task of landing the aircraft and did not notice the visual PULL UP caution alert at the bottom of their PFD.

"Therefore, they (the crew) did not take any positive action to arrest the high rate of descent and avoid landing in the lagoon. In fact, neither of the pilots were aware of the rapidly unfolding unsafe situation.

"The crew seemed to have disregarded and talked over all the caution annunciations. The crew had experienced those type of cautions on previous flights and perceived them as nuisance alerts with no resultant consequence."

‘Cats’ Trailer Becomes Top Twitter Trend in Reaction to Furry CGI Felines

The “Cats” trailer dropped Thursday afternoon, and Twitter pounced. At the time of this writing, the movie was the top trending topic worldwide on Twitter with over 300,000 tweets. While that’s only a fraction of the record 50 million tweets that “Avengers: Endgame” accrued, it’s still an impressive initial response for a film based on a 38-year-old musical.

If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, the actors in Tom Hooper’s “Cats” all retain their human bodies and faces, but are covered in CGI fur and possess pointy ears and tails. Some viewers found the anthropomorphism unsettling, while others — like star Taylor Swift — were thrilled. Reacting to her transformation into a feline, the singer tweeted, “I am a cat now and somehow that was everything.”

But if you wade through the many memes and reactions to the trailer Thursday, you’ll see people having a hard time finding the right words to express their feelings.

“I don’t know what I expected from ‘Cats” ‘digital fur technology’ but the short answer is NOT this. My brain has melted. My eyes are bleeding. There is no god,” entertainment journalist Kristy Puchko said on Twitter. “Maybe we were too harsh on Sonic.”

Disney's 'The Lion King' Looks to Roar at the Weekend Box Office

After five consecutive weeks wherein the weekend domestic box office failed to top the same weekend from a year prior, this weekend will easily buck the trend. Leading the charge, Disney's latest release, the "live-action" adaptation of The Lion King, is likely to outperform the combined top twelve from the same weekend last year all on its own as it is ushered into over 4,700 domestic locations and all over the world.

With what has been a summer box office season that has seen plenty of films under-perform and miss expectations, Disney is hoping their CGI adaptation of the studio's beloved animated feature The Lion King delivers not only at the domestic box office, but all around the world. The film will launch in a record 4,725 domestic locations this weekend and industry expectations have it pegged for a debut around $175-180 million, which would be enough to top the current July opening record holder Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which opened with $169 million back in 2011. A performance in that range would also be the second largest of the year so far behind only Avengers: Endgame ($357.1m) and ahead of Captain Marvel ($153.4m). It would also top Beauty and the Beast, another Disney live-action reimagining, which opened with $174.7 million in March 2017 in 4,210 locations.

‘Supergirl’ Star Melissa Benoist Joins Kevin Smith’s ‘Jay and Silent Bob Reboot’

Melissa Benoist, the star of “Supergirl,” has joined the cast of Kevin Smith’s “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot,” Smith announced on Instagram on Thursday.

The film is a satire about Jay and Silent Bob racing to Hollywood to prevent a reboot of their comic book superhero movie “Bluntman and Chronic” from being made, and in the rebooted version, Benoist will play the actress set to take the role of a now female Chronic.

“And we gave her some pants *before* the good folks at @supergirlcw!,” the director joked on Instagram, noting how Benoist’s hero wears a skirt on the CW show.

Kyoto Animation fire: Arson attack at Japan anime studio kills 33

An arson attack at Kyoto Animation studio in Japan on Thursday morning July 18th, reportedly killed at least 33 people and left 36 others injured.

The 41-year-old suspect shouting “You die" as he broke into the studio spraying petrol before igniting it, was also hurt and taken to a hospital. Though the motive of the attack is yet to be established, however it was gathered that most victims of the incident were employees at Kyoto Animation, which does work on feature films and TV productions but is best known for "Free!", manga series "K-On!", the anime TV adaptation of "Haruhi Suzumiya" and "Violet Evergarden" which Netflix picked up in 2018.

Doctors remove 33 objects including razor blades and a screwdriver from the stomach of a 30-year-old man

Doctors in India have removed 33 objects, including razors and knives, from the stomach of a 30-year old man identified as Yogesh Thakur,

Thakur was admitted to the hospital on July 14 after he complained of severe stomach pain. His mother, Kusma Thakur, told doctors her son would 'grab anything and eat it', leading them to conduct x-rays and doctors were stunned to find objects such as a knife, screwdriver, razor blades and plastic items inside Thakur's stomach.

Two days later, doctors extracted all the objects in an operation and Thakur, a part-time farmer, is now recovering and will receive psychiatric help.