Mompha's alleged Lebanese accomplice arrested in N1.8b Lagos home with charms

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested a Lebanese identified as Hamza Koudeih and two others suspected to be accomplices of Dubai-based Nigerian social media celebrity, Ismaila Mustapha a.k.a Mompha.

Operatives of the anti-graft agency arrested Koudeih after a three-hour stand-off at his N1.8 billion luxury apartment in the 33-storey Eko Atlantic Pearl Tower, Victoria Island, Lagos. It was learnt that he and his wife refused opening the door to their apartment and also refused responding to appeals by the building's chief security officer.

The suspect who alongside Mompha and other arrested suspects are allegedly kingpins of a network of cyber criminals who laundered N33 billion through three firms, lived in an apartment which was fortified with triple reinforced fire-proof door and closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras, making it difficult for the operatives to gain entrance.

However after EFCC operatives gained access into the apartment after trying to break down the door with breaching tools, his wife claimed that her husband had escaped through the window even though they lived in the topmost floor.
Koudeih was found hiding in the ceiling and a fire-proof safe containing different charms and talismans in calabashes was uncovered after a search was conducted in his bedroom.

US Air Force's mysterious space plane lands after record 780 days in orbit

The US Air Force's X-37B space plane landed Sunday back on Earth after spending 780 days in orbit, the longest mission in the mysterious military test program's history.

The uncrewed plane, which looks like a small space shuttle, conducted in-orbit experiments that could then be brought back to Earth for examination, according to the Air Force.
The exact details of these experiments are a closely guarded secret. In a statement, the Air Force only revealed that the program "performs risk reduction, experimentation and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies."
This is the fifth X-37B space plane to be launched into orbit over the past decade, with each flight longer than its predecessor.
"Our team has been preparing for this event, and I am extremely proud to see their hard work and dedication culminate in today's safe and successful landing of the X-37B," said Brig. Gen. Doug Schiess in the statement released Sunday.
Each mission has been highly secretive, leading to public speculation that the planes could be used for spying activity or testing space weapons.

Lebron James forced to evacuate his mansion as California wildfire ravages homes in his neighbourhood

Lebron James was forced to evacuate his home today after wildfires raged just blocks away from his Brentwood, California mansion.

The NBA superstar took to Twitter to write about having to leave home suddenly with his family and looking for where to stay.

He tweeted: "Man these LA [fires] aren’t no joke. Had to emergency evacuate my house and I’ve been driving around with my family trying to get rooms."

He later tweeted that he was able to find a safe place for his family.

He wrote: "Finally found a place to accommodate us! Crazy night man!"

'Terminator: Dark Fate' red carpet premiere canceled due to California wildfires

Paramount Pictures and Skydance have canceled the red carpet premiere for its new film "Terminator: Dark Fate" due to wildfires impacting Los Angeles.

The premiere for the movie had been scheduled to take place Monday in Hollywood and bring together stars of the film, including Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Luna and Mackenzie Davis.
"In light of the ongoing, active fires being battled in the area, Paramount Pictures and Skydance have canceled tonight's Los Angeles premiere of 'Terminator: Dark Fate,'" a statement provided to CNN said. "We will be donating food intended for the after-party to the American Red Cross, which is serving those affected by the fires."
The former California governor said he was among those evacuated, exiting his home around 3:30 a.m. Monday morning.

‘Caught in the Net’ Directors on How They Trapped Sexual Predators

“We want you to act as 12-year-olds.” This was the bizarre, admittedly creepy direction Vit Klusak gave to a gaggle of 19-year-old actresses who turned up for a casting call on his newest docu project, “Caught in the Net.”

The film, co-directed with Barbora Chalupova, has not yet opened in the Czech Republic but has already caused a stir – and has led to the arrest of several alleged sexual predators, the director told a master-class audience at the Ji.hlava docu fest on Saturday.

When Klusak and Chalupova first began looking into the idea of online predators targeting pre-teens, they confess, they had no idea of the extent of the problem.

But as “Caught” makes abundantly clear, there are enough dangers for young people to give any parent nightmares.

The team was assisted in their research by the Czech police cyber crimes unit, Klusak says, which acquainted them with some chilling metrics: As many as 9,000 sexual crimes are committed online every year in the Czech Republic, just a tiny fraction are reported and incidents are up 90%-100% annually; meanwhile, every sixth child in the country has shared “intimate pictures” online.

The docu idea was sparked, Klusak says, after he was approached by Internet provider O2, whose executives wanted him to create a viral video illustrating how easily young girls can be exploited on the web. The company, he learned, is constantly approached by police asking for the addresses of clients suspected of pursuing minors online for web sex and sometimes dates.

Then Chalupova learned about one 12-year-old girl who actually created a fake sexual predator profile for her phone so that it would appear she was getting explicit messages from an older male. Her motive: having something to talk about at school with all her friends who had real older men’s profiles on their phones.

“That’s when I knew we had to make this film,” Chalupova says.

‘Doctor Sleep’ Shines With Early Critical Praise: ‘The Best Stephen King Adaptation Since ‘Shawshank Redemption”

The early returns for “Doctor Sleep,” the upcoming psychological thriller flick from writer-director Mike Flanagan, are in, and in the words of Larry David, they’re “pretty, pretty, pretty good.”

The movie is an adaptation of Stephen King’s 2013 novel of the same name that is also a sequel to his horror classic “The Shining.”

The new film follows an adult Danny Torrance, played by Ewan McGregor, as he works to live a normal life, while still dealing with the lingering effects of what he experienced at the Overlook Hotel as a child. Torrance’s plans go sideways, though, when he bumps into a teenager that shares the “shine” ability and needs his help to fend off some nefarious characters.

The movie hits theaters Nov. 8, but critics that caught a screening this week have been praising it already.

The early returns for “Doctor Sleep,” the upcoming psychological thriller flick from writer-director Mike Flanagan, are in, and in the words of Larry David, they’re “pretty, pretty, pretty good.”

The movie is an adaptation of Stephen King’s 2013 novel of the same name that is also a sequel to his horror classic “The Shining.”

The new film follows an adult Danny Torrance, played by Ewan McGregor, as he works to live a normal life, while still dealing with the lingering effects of what he experienced at the Overlook Hotel as a child. Torrance’s plans go sideways, though, when he bumps into a teenager that shares the “shine” ability and needs his help to fend off some nefarious characters.

The movie hits theaters Nov. 8, but critics that caught a screening this week have been praising it already.

Daily Dead writer Heather Wixson said “Doctor Sleep,” in a year of “great” Stephen King adaptations, is “the best of the bunch.” She added that it’s a “wonderful celebration” of Stanley Kubrick — director of the 1980 film — along with King and Flanagan.

Jane Fonda Accepts BAFTA Award as She’s Arrested

Jane Fonda is taking multitasking to new heights.

The “Grace and Frankie” star wasn’t in attendance at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Friday night to accept the Stanley Kubrick Award for Excellence in Film because, earlier in the day, she was arrested in Washington, D.C. during a climate change protest. But handcuffs and a police escort didn’t stop her from accepting her award.

As officers arrested her from the D.C. scene, Fonda yelled, “BAFTA, thank you!” She continued, while being hauled off. “Thank you! I’m sorry I’m not there! I’m very honored!”

The Stanley Kubrick Award for Excellence in Film honors those “legendary individuals whose work is stamped with the indelible mark of authorship and ingenuity.”

Fonda, along with actor Ted Danson and dozens of other people, was arrested Friday for unlawfully demonstrating, according to Yahoo. They were charged with crowding, obstructing and incommoding. Fonda has already been arrested twice this month while leading climate change protests, but said she plans on continuing to speak out for the next several months.

“I decided I needed to do more about climate change, so I moved to D.C. for four months and tried to heighten the sense of urgency that there needs to be,” Fonda said during an extended clip played at the awards ceremony. “It’s a crisis, not just here but all over the world.”

As violence and vandalism escalate in Hong Kong, some protest supporters have had enough

For most of the summer, 25-year-old Jose was an ardent supporter of the protests raging in Hong Kong. Even when demonstrations became increasingly violent, she defended the protesters themselves -- they were provoked, or were fighting for a greater good, she would argue.

Then August 13 happened. That night, she watched live streams, horrified, as a mob of protesters at Hong Kong airport surrounded a man they claimed was an undercover police officer. They bound his wrists, lashed out at him after he appeared to lose consciousness, and shouted down those who pleaded to get him medical attention.
"I remember being in disbelief, looking at my TV -- like, what's happening? Why have they done this?" Jose said. "Up until that day, I'd understood what they were fighting for ... I went back into my room and sat there looking at my wall for a very long time."

The airport incident marked one of the defining moments in the protests, which began in June with peaceful mass marches against a now-withdrawn bill that would have allowed extradition to mainland China, among other countries. It has since spiraled into a broader pro-democracy, anti-government movement, with protesters laying out five major demands -- only one of which has been met.
Both sides accuse the other of using excessive violence, and provoking the use of police tear gas and protester petrol bombs. Even Hong Kong itself is covered with marks of the unrest, with shops vandalized and boarded up, and many subway station entrances charcoal-black from fires set by protesters.
However with no clear end in sight, new divisions appear to be emerging in the city -- besides the hardcore protest frontliners and fierce opponents, now there are wavering sideline supporters and moderates who say they have been driven away by the violence.

No one believed him when he said he hadn't been drinking. Then researchers found his body was producing alcohol

When a man in North Carolina was pulled over on suspicion of driving drunk, police didn't believe him when he said he hadn't had any alcohol.

The man, in his late 40's at the time, refused to take a breathalyzer test and was taken to a hospital, where his initial blood alcohol level was found to be 0.2% — about 2.5 times the legal limit and the equivalent of consuming 10 drinks an hour. Despite the man swearing up and down that he hadn't had anything to drink, doctors didn't believe him either.
But researchers at the Richmond University Medical Center in New York eventually discovered that the man was telling the truth. He wasn't downing beers or cocktails — instead, there was yeast in his gut that was likely converting carbohydrates in the food he ate to alcohol.

In other words, his body was brewing beer.
The findings were reported in a study in BMJ Open Gastroenterology. The man, whose identity has not been revealed, had a rarely diagnosed medical condition called auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), also known as gut fermentation syndrome.
Gut fermentation syndrome occurs when yeast in the gastrointestinal tract causes the body to convert carbohydrates ingested through food into alcohol. The process typically takes place in the upper GI tract, which includes the stomach and the first part of the small intestine.
"These patients have the exact same implications of alcoholism: the smell, the breath, drowsiness, gait changes," Fahad Malik, the study's lead author and the chief internal medicine resident at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told CNN. "They will present as someone who's intoxicated by alcohol, but the only difference here is that these patients can be treated by antifungal medications."
Researchers treated him with antifungal medications

Philippine mayor on President Duterte's drug list killed by gunmen in daylight ambush

A Philippine city mayor on President Rodrigo Duterte's ‘drug list' has been gunned down during a daylight ambush by a gang of heavily armed men.

Mayor David Navarro of Clarin, Misamis Occidental, was killed and five others were left injured in the attack on Friday, October 25.
This comes a day after Navarro was detained by Cebu police after he was accused of beating up a therapist inside a massage centre the previous night. The beating incident on Wednesday night was caught on a close-circuit camera.
Navarro was being transported in police vehicle to the prosecutor's office in Cebu City to faces charges of assault when men in masks in another van stopped the police convoy. They reportedly told the mayor to get down and shot him dead.
According to RT, Navarro was wearing a bulletproof vest and was flanked by officers in a patrol car when the convoy came under fire.

Actress Felicity Huffman released from prison on 11th day of 14-day sentence

Felicity Huffman has been released from prison after serving only 11 days out of her 14-day prison sentence over her role in a massive college admissions scandal.

The California Board of Prisons said the actress who started off her prison sentence on October 15 at a Federal Prison in Dublin, California with approximately 1,200 female inmates was released early in adherence to a policy of inmates getting released on Friday if their release date falls on a weekend.

Recall Huffman who admitted to paying $15,000 in an effort to boost her eldest daughter's SAT score also received one year of probation, 250 hours of community service and a $30,000 fine she has already paid.

DOJ review of Russia probe now a criminal inquiry

The Justice Department has shifted its review of the Russia probe to a criminal investigation, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday, a move that is likely to raise concerns that President Donald Trump and his allies may be using the powers of the government to go after their opponents.

The revelation comes as Trump is already facing scrutiny about a potential abuse of power, including a House impeachment inquiry examining whether he withheld military aid in order to pressure the president of Ukraine to launch an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

The person who confirmed the criminal investigation was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

It is not clear what potential crimes are being investigated, but the designation as a formal criminal investigation gives prosecutors the ability to issue subpoenas, potentially empanel a grand jury and compel witnesses to give testimony and bring federal criminal charges.

The Justice Department had previously considered it to be an administrative review, and Attorney General William Barr appointed John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, to lead the inquiry into the origins of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. It's not clear when Durham's inquiry shifted to a criminal investigation.

Kim orders South's buildings at resort in North be destroyed

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the destruction of South Korean-made hotels and other tourist facilities at the North's Diamond Mountain resort, apparently because Seoul won't defy international sanctions and resume South Korean tours at the site.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday that Kim had visited the resort and described its facilities as "shabby" and lacking national character. The report said Kim criticized North Korea's policies pushed under his late father as too dependent on the South and vowed that the North would redevelop the site on its own.

Kim's comments came during a prolonged freeze in relations with Seoul and are a major setback to liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who met Kim three times last year while expressing ambitions to reboot inter-Korean economic engagement.

The prospects for that has dimmed amid a standstill in nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang, which faltered after the collapse of a February summit between Kim and President Donald Trump where the Americans rejected the North's demands for broad sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.

The United States and North Korea resumed working-level discussions in Sweden earlier this month, but the talks broke down amid acrimony.

South Korean officials held back direct criticism on Kim's remarks, saying they need to take a closer look at the North's intent.

Breaking News:39 bodies found in a truck container in southeast England

Police have launched a murder investigation in southeast England after 39 people were found dead in a truck container at an Essex industrial park. One of the victims was in their teens.

Authorities believe the lorry originated from Bulgaria, entering the UK over the weekend.
"We are in the process of identifying the victims, however I anticipate that this could be a lengthy process," Chief Superintendent Andrew Mariner said in a statement.
They have arrested a 25-year-old Northern Irish truck driver "on suspicion of murder," Essex Police said.
"We have arrested the lorry driver in connection with the incident who remains in police custody as our enquiries continue. I appreciate this cordon is going to disrupt the activity of local businesses in the area and we will work to ensure that disruption is kept as short as possible. We are working with Thurrock Council to mitigate against any impact our investigation scene will have locally, " Mariner added.

Damon Herriman Stands Out as ‘The Nightingale’ and ‘Lambs of God’ Lead AACTA Nominations

Dark thriller, “The Nightingale” and miniseries “Lambs of God” lead the pack at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards. In nominations announced on Wednesday, they picked up 15 and 18 nods, respectively.

Jennifer Kent’s “The Nightingale” was one of six films nominated in the best film category. With others including Mirrah Foulkes’ “Judy & Punch,” and Rachel Griffiths’ “Ride Like A Girl,” as well as “Hotel Mumbai,” “Top End Wedding,” and ‘The King,” half are made by female directors.

Actor, Damon Herriman is the standout talent. He is nominated as best (film) actor for an extraordinary performance in “Judy & Punch,” best supporting actor in “The Nightingale,” and best (TV) supporting actor in both “Lambs of God,” and “Mr Inbetween.” Joel Edgerton gets three nominations as co-writer, best actor, and producer of “The King.”