Suicide bomber plotting to attack Mecca blows himself up

Saudi security forces said Saturday they disrupted a plot to attack the Grand Mosque at Mecca, home to the holiest site in Islam, just as the fasting month of Ramadan concludes.

The Interior Ministry said it launched raids in Jiddah province, as well as two areas in Mecca itself, including the Ajyad Al-Masafi neighborhood, located near the Grand Mosque.

There, police said they engaged in a shootout at a three-story house a suicide bomber, who blew himself up and led to the building’s collapse. He was killed while the blast wounded six foreigners and five members of the security forces, according to the Interior Ministry’s statement. Five others were arrested, it said.

The Interior Ministry “confirms that this terrorist network, whose terrorist plan was thwarted, violated, in what they would have perpetrated, all sanctities by targeting the security of the Grand Mosque, the holiest place on Earth.”

Belgian court finds 8 Arab princesses guilty of trafficking and abuse

Eight princesses from Abu Dhabi's ruling al-Nahyan family were each given a 15-month suspended prison sentence and fined 165,000 euros ($185,000) on Friday after a court in Belgium found them guilty of human trafficking and abusing their servants.

The case dates back to July 2008, when Princess Shekha Alnehayan,  and her seven daughters rented an entire floor of Brussels' Conrad Hotel for several months and brought more than 20 servants with them.

According to the prosecution, the workers were "treated like slaves" and forced to attend to the princesses' every wish 24 hours a day, while not being given enough food or beds to sleep in. Prosecutors said the princesses had also confiscated their passports and refused to pay their salaries.

Arab states issue ultimatum to Qatar: close Jazeera, curb ties with Iran

Four Arab states that imposed a boycott on Qatar have issued an ultimatum to Doha to close Al Jazeera television, curb ties with Iran, shut a Turkish base and pay reparations, demands so far reaching it would appear to be hard for Doha to comply.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have sent a 13-point list of demands apparently aimed at dismantling their tiny but wealthy neighbor's two-decade-old interventionist foreign policy which has incensed them. Kuwait is helping mediate the dispute.

A Qatari government spokesman said Doha was reviewing the list of demands and that a formal response would be made by the foreign ministry and delivered to Kuwait, but added that the demands were not reasonable or actionable.

"This list of demands confirms what Qatar has said from the beginning – the illegal blockade has nothing to do with combating terrorism, it is about limiting Qatar’s sovereignty, and outsourcing our foreign policy," Sheikh Saif al-Thani director of Qatar's government communications office, said in a statement.

A Qatar semi-government human rights body said the demands were a violation of human rights conventions and should not be accepted by Qatar.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani had said on Monday that Qatar would not negotiate with the four states until economic, diplomatic and travel ties cut this month were restored.

Senator Dino Melaye Panics, Hires Mike Ozekhome To Stop His Recall In Court

Senator Dino Melaye of Kogi West Senatorial district has filed a lawsuit at the Federal high Court in Abuja seeking a court injunction to halt his recall from the Senate.

According to SaharaReporters sources, a panic-stricken Melaye had been shopping for a judge in the last 48 hours that could grant an injunction to halt the process after word reached him that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was meeting to decide  on an appropriate response to the submission of more 188,000 signatures to their headquarters on Wednesday from his constituents who wanted him recalled from the Nigerian Senate.

Thousands gather for Otto Warmbier's funeral; the American student who died at the hands of North Korea

This morning, friends and family members gathered in Ohio to say goodbye to an American student who died just six days after being returned to the United States in a coma following 17 months in captivity in North Korea.

22 year old Otto Warmbier was arrested in North Korea while visiting as a tourist in 2016.

Veteran musician Victor Uwaifo’s building burnt by robbers

- In a surprising bit of news, one of the buildings owned by Victor Uwaifo was recently gutted by fire - This was the work of armed robbers - They burnt the building in revenge of an earlier attack These are not the best of times for veteran musician Victor Uwaifo as one of the investment the 76-year-old musician has was completely razed to the ground. His hostel located in Benin City was recently visited by thieves who because the occupants called for help decided to burn the whole building. 

According to various sources, the robbers attempted to break down a door of an apartment at around 9pm. Hearing the commotion, the occupants quickly alerted some guys in the area to come to their aid but the robbers heard them making calls and quickly left before they could be apprehended. 

Lagos is 29th most expensive city to live in the world, Abuja 59th

The 23rd Cost of Living Survey carried out by Mercer, the world’s largest human resource consulting firm, found that African, Asian, and European cities dominated the 2017 list of most expensive locations for working abroad.

According to the survey, Lagos ranked 13th while Abuja ranked 20th in 2016.

The capital city of Angola, Luanda, however, ranked first globally moving up from second place and taking over from Hong Kong as the world’s most expensive city.

The survey attributed cost of goods and security as factors that determined the cost of living in Luanda.

Other African cities that ranked high reflected high living costs and prices of goods for expatriate employees.

The CIA paid psychologists $81 million to devise brutal tactics for use on terror suspects, and they're suing

After a doctor X-rayed one prisoner's badly broken feet, his colleague gave interrogators the go-ahead to force him to stand for 52 hours.

They were employed in an $81-million dollar CIA interrogation program which ran for at least seven years under the Bush administration beginning in 2002.

Public documents suggest it was led by two military psychologists, John Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, whose techniques are widely seen as torture.

A lawsuit filed in 2017 by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of former prisoners shines new light on the grisly details of the tactics the doctors approved for use on terrorism suspects in an attempt to extract information from them after the events of September 11, 2001. These tactics, which range from water-boarding to "walling" — a method that involves pushing a person into a flexible plywood wall so hard that it creates a disturbing sound that pierces the ear — are widely considered torture by experts.

Prodigy, rapper of Mobb Deep fame, dies aged 42

The Queens-born MC died on Tuesday after a performance in Las Vegas, having been hospitalized recently for complications tied to sickle cell anemia

The rapper Prodigy, one half of the American hip-hop duo Mobb Deep, died on Tuesday at the age of 42.

The MC was found unconscious in Las Vegas, and while the cause of death remains unclear, the group’s publicist sent the following statement to the music website XXL:

“It is with extreme sadness and disbelief that we confirm the death of our dear friend Albert Johnson, better known to millions of fans as Prodigy of legendary NY rap duo Mobb Deep. Prodigy was hospitalized a few days ago in Vegas after a Mobb Deep performance for complications caused by a sickle cell anemia crisis. As most of his fans know, Prodigy battled the disease since birth. The exact causes of death have yet to be determined. We would like to thank everyone for respecting the family’s privacy at this time.”

Mobb Deep, comprised of Prodigy and Havoc, has sold more than 3 million records, their albums The Infamous and Hell on Earth having been critically acclaimed successes in the 1990s. The group took an indefinite hiatus in 2012 but reunited shortly after, releasing their eighth album, The Infamous Mobb Deep, in 2014. The duo performed in Las Vegas at the weekend on The Art of Rap tour, alongside Ice-T, Ghostface Killah, and Onyx.

BREAKING! Death Penalty For Billionaire Kidnapper, Evans

The Lagos Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode has signed into law Life Imprisonment or death penalty for the offence of Kidnap and forceful extortion in Lagos State as he signs into law the state kidnapping prohibition bill, 2016.

The law provides for death penalty for kidnappers whose victims die in their custody, and life imprisonment for the act of kidnapping.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Lagos State House of Assembly passed the bill on January 5.

The governor said that the law was enacted to address key issues bordering on security.

He said that kidnapping had become a major threat to the safety of residents and, therefore, required decisive action by the government.

“This law imposes a penalty of life imprisonment for kidnapping for ransom.

“The law stipulates that, where a victim dies in the course of kidnapping, the suspect is liable on conviction to death.

Pregnant mother of 4 shot and killed by Seattle police after she confronted officers with a knife

On Sunday, a pregnant mother of four  identified as 30-year-old Charleena Lyles was shot and killed by Seattle police after she confronted officers with a knife. 

Police Sgt. Mark Jamieson said two officers went to Lyles' address after she called to report a burglary. "We were here to meet with one of the residents. Typically, that would be a one-officer call, but there was some information in the system, officers had dealt with this particular unit, this particular caller just recently. There was some hazard information so that prompted a second officer to respond. She started talking all crazy about how the officers weren't going to leave and she had a pair of scissors," one officer says." Jamieson said.

Nigerians start a #TontoDikehChallenge on Facebook

Nigerians have started a #TontoDikehChallenge on Facebook and it's the most hilarious thing ever. The Challenge started after the actress dressed as a man for her son's Father's day school celebration. Since then, Facebook users have been sharing photos of themselves crossing dressing on the platform. 

 

What we know about Navy destroyer's deadly collision with a container ship off Japan

The Japanese coast guard is investigating the collision between the Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald and a container ship off the coast of Japan on Saturday that killed seven U.S. sailors and injured several more.

Here's what we know:

The collision happened early Saturday

The USS Fitzgerald collided with the Philippine-flagged container ship ACX Crystal off the coast of Yokosuka, Japan, before 2:20 a.m. Saturday local time, according to the U.S. Navy.

The Fitzgerald sustained damage on its starboard side and experienced flooding in some spaces as a result of the collision, according to the Navy.

The destroyer was operating about 56 nautical miles southwest of Yokosuka when it collided with the ACX Crystal. Most of the Fitzgerald's 300 crew members on board would have been asleep at the time, The Associated Press reported.

Weather conditions were clear at the time of the collision, the AP reported. The area is often busy with sea traffic, with as many as 400 ships passing through it every day, according to Japan's coast guard.

Police find hidden trove of suspected Nazi artifacts in Argentina

TriggerMembers of the federal police carry a Nazi statue at the Interpol headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

 In a hidden room in a house near Argentina’s capital, police believe they have found the biggest collection of Nazi artifacts in the country’s history, including a bust relief of Adolf Hitler, magnifying glasses inside elegant boxes with swastikas and even a macabre medical device used to measure head size.

Some 75 objects were found in a collector’s home in Beccar, a suburb north of Buenos Aires, and authorities say they suspect they are originals that belonged to high-ranking Nazis in Germany during World War II.

“Our first investigations indicate that these are original pieces,” Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told The Associated Press on Monday, saying that some pieces were accompanied by old photographs. “This is a way to commercialize them, showing that they were used by the horror, by the Fuhrer. There are photos of him with the objects.”

The surprising reason why most men cheat

Men have revealed the real reason why they cheat on their partners, and it’s not what many women might expect.

Many people assume that cheaters look for a bit on the side because they are bored with their stale relationship, but that may not be the case for most cheaters.

In fact, it turns out that boredom with the relationship isn’t even one of the top three reasons why cheaters look for someone else to get intimate with.

According to Superdrug’s Online Doctor, the most common reason why men are unfaithful is simple: the other person was just really hot.

According to a shocking survey of 2,000 adulterers, European men stray because they can’t resist the temptation of the other person.