THE manager of Harvard Medical School’s morgue and three others have been charged with buying and selling stolen human remains. Cedric Lodge allegedly took “heads, brains, skin and bones” from cadavers donated to Harvard University’s medical school and sold them online. According to the indictment, he and his wife, Denise, sold body parts to buyers in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. The scheme allegedly ran from 2018 to 2021. Prosecutors allege Mr Lodge used his position as the manager of the “Anatomical Gifts Program” at Harvard Medical School to dismember cadavers donated for medical research. Harvard students use donated bodies to study…
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AT least 79 people have died and more than 100 have been rescued after their fishing vessel capsized off the coast of southern Greece. But survivors and Greek officials say that hundreds more migrants were on board. The government says this is one of Greece’s biggest migrant tragedies, and has declared three days of mourning. The boat went down about 80 km (50 miles) south-west of Pylos after the coastguard said it had refused help. The coastguard said the boat had been spotted in international waters late on Tuesday by an aircraft belonging to EU border agency Frontex. No-one on…
THE authorities in Egypt have executed a man who had been convicted of killing a fellow university student last year after she rejected his marriage proposal. Video footage of Mohammad Adel stabbing Nayra Ashraf and slitting her throat last June outside Mansoura University, where they both studied, went viral. It caused nationwide panic as the case reopened the debate about violence against women. Adel faced an expedited trial and was convicted of premeditated murder. Executions in Egypt usually happen within four years after conviction but in Adel’s case the public prosecution called for the death penalty to be expedited. Ms…
FOUR men have been arrested in north-eastern Ghana for their alleged involvement in a viral video in which a woman was stripped naked and sexually assaulted as a crowd looked on. The woman, believed to be from the Fulani community, was eventually able to free herself and run off. The incident happened in the market of Zebilla, a town in Upper East Region where there have been long-standing tensions between semi-nomadic Fulani herders and local people. The communities often quarrel over grazing rights for cattle and access to water. The tensions recently resulted in the killing of a young man…
SUSPECTED gunmen have kidnapped a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Akwa Ibom State, Chief Eyo Edet. Edet, popularly called Eyo Aswang, was reportedly kidnapped on Monday, in his Filling Station, Eyotech Nigeria Limited, in the Oron Local Government area of the state. A source told our Correspondent in Uyo on Wednesday that Edet who served as the Deputy Coordinator of PDP’s Divine Campaign Organisation in Oron at the last election was accosted by his abductors and whisked away in a Sienna car. The source further revealed that his abductors drove their victims to a waiting speed boat and…
ITALIAN teams reaffirmed their dominance in football this season with three clubs from the country reaching the finals of Europe’s top competitions. The U-20 male side also powered to the final of the 2023 World Cup in Argentina. Roma reached the final of the Europa League, and Fiorentina played West Ham in the UEFA Conference League final. Inter Milan also featured in the Champions League final while the male national team reached the 2023 U-20 World Cup final. While the feat drew lots of applause, the four teams lost the finals in a space of two weeks, sparking another wave…
BRAZIL will play Spain in a friendly in March next year as part of an anti-racism campaign in support of Vinicius Jr. The game will be played at the Bernabeu – home of Brazil winger Vinicius’ club side Real Madrid. Vinicius was the target of racist abuse multiple times in Spain while playing for Real in the past campaign. “There is no place for racist insults in our football,” said Spanish Football Association president Luis Rubiales. Rubiales and Brazilian FA (CBF) counterpart Ednaldo Rodrigues launched their anti-racism campaign under the slogan “One skin”. “It is important to understand that harder…
DONALD Trump has pleaded not guilty to historic charges of mishandling sensitive files at a federal court in Miami, Florida. Mr Trump is the first US president – current or former – to be hit with a federal criminal indictment. Arms crossed, in a dark suit and red tie, he sat in stone-faced silence for his second court appearance this year. The Republican later travelled to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he addressed supporters. Against a backdrop of American flags, Mr Trump, who is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, told the assembled crowd he…
AFGHANS fleeing the Taliban are being kidnapped and tortured by gangs as they try to cross the border between Iran and Turkey on their way to Europe, a BBC investigation has found. The gangs then send videos of the abuse to the families of migrants being held hostage, demanding a ransom for their release. Shackled together on a mountain-top with padlocks around their necks, a group of Afghan migrants beg for their release. “Whoever watches this video, I was kidnapped yesterday, they are demanding $4,000 (£3,200) for each one of us. They beat us day and night non-stop,” says one…
THE voice of the female doctor in war-hit Sudan is shaky. She is leaving a message with BBC Arabic’s mobile phone number via WhatsApp. It is for a special radio programme called Li Sudan Salam, which means both “greetings to Sudan” and “peace to Sudan”. It was launched following the outbreak of conflict there between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on 15 April. Hundreds of people have died and more than a million have been forced from their homes across the country. The radio programme has received numerous messages about women and girls being raped amid…
Eighty members of a Ugandan religious cult who had been convinced to travel to Ethiopia and starve themselves have been repatriated, authorities in Uganda say. Their pastor allegedly told them that they would “meet Jesus Christ” after fasting for 40 days. A joint police operation is now leading a search for cult leader Simon Opolot. In Kenya, a different religious figure is alleged to have convinced hundreds to starve themselves to death. The 80 members of the Christ Disciples Church reportedly got rid of their belongings earlier this year and then travelled from a rural area in eastern Uganda to…
EGYPT’s Al Ahly have been crowned African Champions League winners – again – after beating Wydad Casablanca. On Sunday night, Africa’s most successful football club won a record-extending 11th continental crown. A 1-1 draw, with a late leveller on the night, handed them a 3-2 aggregate win over Wydad. The sides had met in the same fixture last year, when Wydad claimed the title for a third time. This year, the Egyptians travelled to Morocco with a 2-1 lead from the first leg. To say the North African derby was a cagey affair, however, would be an understatement. Prior to…
PARIS St-Germain are prepared to sell Kylian Mbappe this summer rather than risk losing him for free in a year’s time, after he told the French club he will not renew his contract. The France forward’s current deal expires at the end of next season, with the option of another year. There was a deadline of 31 July for Mbappe, 24, to tell PSG if he was going to renew until 2025. After months of talks, he has sent the club a letter saying he will not. PSG’s record goalscorer would be free to leave for nothing at the end…
DONALD Trump is spending the night in Miami, Florida, before he appears in court there on Tuesday charged with mishandling national security files. The former US president flew from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to his Trump Doral resort near Miami. Mr Trump is facing dozens of charges of illegally retaining classified information, including some about nuclear secrets. It is the second time this year he has been charged with a crime. Mr Trump, campaigning to make a return to the White House in 2024, has denied wrongdoing as he faces the first ever federal criminal prosecution against…
MOURNERS at the funeral of an elderly Ecuadorian woman were startled to discover she was still alive. Bella Montoya, 76, was declared dead last week following a suspected stroke. Five hours into her wake on Friday, relatives preparing to change her clothes ahead of the burial found her gasping for air. Ms Montoya is now back in hospital in intensive care, and Ecuador’s health ministry has set up a committee to investigate the incident. In a statement, the ministry said that the woman went into cardiorespiratory arrest – a loss of breathing and heart function – and did not respond…
THREE leaders of Tunisia’s once-dominant Ennahdha party are on a hunger strike to protest their detention under a crackdown against opponents of President Kais Saied, the party and a detainee’s wife said Monday. One of them, Sahbi Atig, 64, a former leader of Ennahdha’s parliamentary bloc, has been on his hunger strike for 32 days, leading to a severe deterioration in his health, his wife Zeineb Mraihi said after visiting him in prison. “He lost 17 kilograms (37 pounds), his heart rhythm is weak and he can hardly speak,” Mraihi said. Atig spent several days in intensive care at hospital…
AT least 46 people, half of them children, were killed in a militia attack on a camp for displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, security analysts and a local community leader said Monday. A militia group involved in numerous ethnic killings in the area attacked the camp in northeastern Ituri province overnight Sunday to Monday, Richard Dheda, an official of the local administration for Bahema Badjere in Djugu territory, told AFP. The Kivu Security Tracker (KST), a network of observers based in DRC’s restive east, counted “at least 46” dead in the Lala camp. A community leader Desire…
THE announcement by the Federal Government that the controversial Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria Godwin Emefiele has been suspended took the embattled banker by surprise and shocked his two emissaries who had pleaded on his behalf to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Quest Times reports that once Tinubu won the Presidential Elections, Emefiele and his godfather Jim Ovia ran to Billionaire Aliko Dangote to help appease the then President-Elect. Dangote who had benefitted immensely from the Governor especially in regards to supply of foreign exchange favours then approached then President-Elect Tinubu with international but Nigerian based business guru Gilbert…
SILVIO Berlusconi, the former prime minister who reshaped Italy’s political and cultural landscape while fending off multiple legal and sex scandals, has died aged 86, his spokesman confirmed to AFP Monday. The billionaire media mogul was admitted to a Milan hospital on Friday for what aides said were pre-planned tests related to his leukaemia. His admission came just three weeks after he was discharged following a six-week stay at Milan’s San Raffaele hospital, during which time doctors revealed he had a rare type of blood cancer. Berlusconi had suffered ill health for years, from heart surgery in 2016 to a…
ENYIMBA drew 1-1 with Rivers United at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Onikan, Lagos on Sunday to claim a ninth Nigeria Premier League title. The draw with the 2022 champions means that the People’s Elephant topped the NPFL Super Six playoffs table with nine points from five games. The two-time CAF Champions League winners took the lead against the Port Harcourt based side through Ekenne Awazie six minutes before the break due to shaky defending by United. Following a spirited fight back by River United, they levelled up the score through Nyima Nwagua three minutes after the break. With this outcome,…