Mysterious fire consumes a pregnant woman and her daughter in Imo State

A pregnant woman, Mrs. Nkechi Amajuoyi and her two-year-old daughter were burnt to death on Tuesday night, following a mysterious fire, that consumed their house in Ubachima, Awo Omamma, Oru East Local Council of Imo State.

The bereaved husband Benedict Amajuoyi while narrating the incident, stated that “After having my supper, I decided to sleep on a bench outside the house since there was no light”

“I suddenly heard my wife and daughter screaming for help, but by the time I got to the room, it was already covered by smoke. I couldn’t help them when they needed me the most” he lamented.

Though the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, there are two different conflicting reports on how the fire began.

On narrating the incident, some eyewitnesses claimed that the family of three was relaxing outside the house until it became very cold for the woman and their daughter. Since there was no electrical power supply, the late Mrs Amajuoyi lit the family’s lantern and headed for the room with the little girl. Unknown to her, petrol was dripping from her husband’s motorcycle which was parked inside the house, and in a twinkle of the eye, the room was on fire.

Another set of witnesses claimed that the woman and her daughter had successfully gone to bed before the mysterious fire sprung from the lantern and spread round the room.

Man Poisoned A Day After Winning 1 Million US Dollars in a Lottery

One day, Urooj Khan jumped for joy after scoring a $1 million winner on an Illinois lottery scratch ticket. The next month, he was dead. The lottery winner ‘woke up screaming from fatal cyanide poisoning ONE DAY after receiving a check for his $1million ticket. Investigators initially ruled Khan’s manner of death natural. But after being prompted by a relative, the medical examiner’s office in Cook County, Illinois, revisited the case and eventually determined there was a lethal amount of cyanide in Khan’s system. “That … led us to issue an amended death certificate that (established) cyanide toxicity as the cause of death, and the manner of death as homicide,” Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Steve Cina said Monday. Why did Khan, an Indian immigrant who was described as a well-liked, hardworking and successful businessman, die? And who is responsible? Finding that out is now up to the Chicago police.

No arrests have been made. “We are investigating it as a murder, and we’re working closely with the medical examiner’s office,” Chicago police spokeswoman Melissa Stratton said Monday. On June 26, Khan was all smiles at a 7-Eleven in the Rogers Park section of Chicago. Surrounded by his wife, daughter and friends, he held an oversized $1 million check and recalled his joy upon playing the “$3 million Cash Jackpot!” game, where tickets sell for $30 apiece. “I scratched the ticket, then I kept saying, ‘I hit a million!’ over and over again,” the 46-year-old Khan said, according to a press release from the Illinois Lottery.
“I jumped two feet in the air, then ran back into the store and tipped the clerk $100.” The plan, he explained, was to use the money for his mortgage, paying off bills, a donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and investing more in his dry cleaning businesses. “Winning the lottery means everything to me,” Khan said. He would have to wait a few weeks to collect his actual winnings, which amounted after taxes to about $425,000.
According to CNN affiliate WGN, that check was issued July 19, but Khan never got to spend it. The next night, Khan came home, ate dinner and went to bed, according to an internal police department document obtained by the Chicago Tribune. His family later heard him screaming and took him to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, the paper reported, citing the document. That’s where the Cook County medical examiner’s office came in, investigating Khan’s death because it was “sudden and unexpected,” Cina said. At the time, there were no allegations of foul play or evidence of trauma. So, following the office’s policy, Khan’s body underwent what Cina described as an “external examination (and) basic toxicology testing,” neither of which turned up anything abnormal.

So the medical examiner ruled that Khan had died of arterial scler*tic cardiovascular disease — which encompasses incidents like heart attacks, strokes and aortic ruptures — and that his manner of death was natural, according to Cina. A few days later, a family member approached the doctor who had examined the body “and said they felt uncomfortable that it was being ruled a natural and they suggested that we look into it further,” the chief medical examiner said. “So we did that,” he added. “Forensics is not a static field. If new evidence comes to light, we’ll revisit cases.”
That meant more in-depth toxicology tests. In early September, new screening results came back indicating cyanide in Khan’s blood. With that, the official manner of death was changed from natural to pending, Cina said, and Chicago police got involved. In late November, a more detailed blood analysis came back showing “a lethal level of cyanide,” and Khan’s death became a murder case. Chicago police haven’t offered details, including a possible motive, about what they call an “ongoing investigation.”
Talking briefly with CNN affiliate WBBM and the Tribune, Khan’s widow described her husband as kind and exemplary. Jimmy Goreel, who runs the 7-Eleven where the winning lottery ticket was sold, offered similarly glowing comments about Khan. “I would never think that anybody … would hurt him,” Goreel told WGN. “(He was a) nice person, very hopeful and gentle (and) very hardworking.”

Ship in Tin Can Island Catches Fire

The Ship

A ship docked at the Tin Can Island port in Apapa, Lagos has exploded in flames. This was following a blast in the port.


The blast, which shook buildings in the Apapa area, happened during a transfer of fuel, the National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) said.

Nema's Akande Iyiola told the BBC the oil depot was owned the petroleum company MRS Oil.

Firefighters are working to douse the flames and four people were wounded in the blast, AFP news agency reports.

Many tankers dock at jetties in the port in Lagos to load and unload petroleum products.

Nigeria is one of the world's biggest oil producers, but imports refined petrol.

My Cure for HIV/AIDS is scientific, says lecturer who claims to have found cure for AIDS

The new therapy for HIV/AIDS unveiled by researchers of the University of Benin passed through due scientific process and was reviewed by international Toxicologists, the lead researcher and Dean of the School of Basic Medical Science, Isaiah Ibeh, has said.
Mr. Ibeh, a professor, said his team “took our finding to the United States” of America and was reviewed by other international Toxicologists.
The work, Evaluation of the anti- human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) properties of bioclean II (DXL – Deconcuction X-Liquid), was reviewed at the International Toxicology Summit and Expo in November 2012, at the United States of America, and published in the Journal of Clinical Toxicology in December, an open access journal.

The exhibition was for cooperation and funding, he said, and the response is positive.
Abstracts of the publication, and some copies of Mr. Ibeh’s other works were made availabe to newsmen.
Mr. Ibeh also said the new drug is capable of wiping out the deadly virus, or significantly lowering its load within a month.
Volunteers are currently receiving treatment, and those exposed to Deconcuction X (DX)–Liquid or Bioclean 11, for 30 days have shown complete absence of very minimal level of the virus, the university professor said.
Mr. Ibeh spoke to newsmen via phone late Tuesday, after an earlier press conference where he announced the team’s work.
The suspicions
The news of the “miracle drug” has expectedly set off a whirlwind of reactions laden with cautious optimism and outright dismissal, with many questioning the team’s methodology and prospect of the therapy.
The fears are founded on past claim by another Nigerian researcher, Jeremiah Abalaka, which proved unsuccessful over time.
A recent claim by the president of Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, of anti HIV/AIDS herbal medication capable of clearing the virus, has also been largely unproven, and questionable.
International researchers have criticized Mr. Jammeh’s claim as unfounded and unscientific.

“That is the dilemma of researchers,” Mr. Ibeh said. “If past efforts are deemed to have been unsuccessful, people have such concerns. But the truth is volunteers are currently being treated here, and if one is exposed to the product within 30 days, they will see the difference.”
The announcement is certain to trigger further scrutiny, but Mr. Ibeh said the herbal invention is potent and had undergone basic scientific procedures required.

The UNIBEN Professor

Mr. Ibeh, 58, holds Ph.D in Medical Laboratory Science and Microbiology. He has been a Professor of Microbiology since 2003.
He has published over 80 journal, 8 textbooks and has attended several conferences. He was the President of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria, Edo State Branch (2002 – 2004).
He was a Common Wealth Scholar to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, University of London, 1988; Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Third World Academy for the Advancement of Sciences (TWAS) 1995; visiting Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research of India (CISR) 1995 – 1996. He was Head of Department of Microbiology 2005 – 2007 and currently the Dean, School of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Benin.

Many of his past works have been published by the Indian Journal of Neurosurgery, European Journal of Scientific Research, North American Journal of Medical Sciences, African Journals online, Prime Journal and Journal of clinical neonatology.
Mr. Ibeh said the team, made of three core researchers and five extended scientists, was currently working on limiting the duration it takes to reverse the infection.

Boko Haram Top Man Escapes Arrest In Benue

One of the top kingpins of the dreaded lslamist sect, Boko Haram, Ali Jalingo, Sunday evaded arrest in Gboko town of Gboko Local Government Area of Benue state when security operatives raided the area in search of him.

It gathered that the invasion, which took place in Gboko South, at about 3:00am yesterday morning was accompanied by fire exchange from the operatives and some heavily armed gunmen.

The Benue State Police Command disclosed that it was a military team from Abuja, including soldiers and men of the State Security Service (SSS) that carried out the operation, saying that the police in Benue were not involved.

Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Daniel Ezeala said: “it was not the police in Benue that carried out the operation. The incident happened in Gboko Benue State but it was the military and the state security service in Abuja that carried it out. And so we (Benue police command) cannot give the details of the incident and I cannot tell you anything more than that.”

However, it was learnt that Jalingo had rented an apartment belonging to a man identified as ‘Dan Tsoho’ behind an Islamic primary school in the community.

Jalingo, a native of Niger Republic who was declared wanted in connection with various bombings in Borno and other parts of Northern Nigeria was alleged to have been in Gboko town for some time now.

According to an eyewitness, who simply gave his name as Mohammed, “There were gunshots around Gboko South in the early hours of Sunday, precisely 3am. People thought it was thieves on rampage. But as the day broke, a source from that part of the town told our correspondent that soldiers were after a suspected Boko Haram agent, Ali Jalingo.”

“This evening, at about 6pm, bulldozers were sited at the vicinity doing their job. Five minutes later, the house was reduced to rubbles. Some residents were said to have deserted the area while sighting the presence of heavily armed security personnel”, he said.

Family being treated for rabies after a wild cat suddenly attacked them

A man in Massachusetts says all he heard was a hiss before a bobcat pounced on him in his own garage, sinking its teeth into his face and its claws in his back.

Roger Mundell Jr. went into the garage in Brookfield on Sunday morning to fetch some tie-down straps for a friend when the animal attacked.

It then ran out of the garage and bit Mundell's 15-year-old nephew on the arms and back.

Mundell and his wife pinned the cat to the ground and shot it dead.

Mundell, his nephew and his wife, are being treated for rabies. His wife wasn't bitten, but got the animal's blood on her.

State Environmental Police took the bobcat to have it tested for rabies, which they think is likely given its unusual behavior.

Gunmen Kill 10 in Zamfara

Gunmen shot and hacked to death about 10 people during a raid on two neighbouring villages in Zamfara State, police said on Sunday, in an area plagued by Islamist militancy and lawlessness.

The motive behind the late Saturday attack on the villages of Makera and Usu was not known, police said.

It was also unclear whether militant Islamist sect Boko Haram, or a criminal gang were behind it, Reutersreports on Sunday.

“There was an attack in these villages in Zamfara and people were killed. I think the number is around 10,” Zamfara police spokesman, Hassan Talba, said on the telephone from the scene.

He said the prime suspects were gangs of Fulani herdsmen but that police were still investigating.