Doctor Jailed Over Michael Jackson's Death Is Freed

Conrad Murray provided overdose of anaesthetic to singer Michael Jackson

The doctor convicted of killing Michael Jackson has been released from jail after serving nearly half of a four-year sentence.
Conrad Murray (60) was released from the Los Angeles jail after a change in California law allowed his time behind bars to be significantly cut.
The former cardiologist was convicted in 2011 of causing Jackson's death in June 2009 by providing him with an overdose of the powerful anaesthetic propofol as a sleeping aid.
Jackson was preparing for a series of comeback concerts and Murray was his personal physician.
Murray's prospects are uncertain. His licence to practise medicine has been suspended or revoked in three states and his face and name are well known due to his association with Jackson and his highly publicised involuntary manslaughter trial.
The former doctor, who was released at lunchtime yesterday, is appealing his conviction, though an appeals court has questioned whether it needs to hear the case.

Michael Jackson

His lawyer, Valerie Wass, has argued that the court should not dismiss the appeal, because it could alter his overall sentence and reduce some of the stigma his conviction has caused.
Despite being jailed, Murray has not been silent. Audio recordings of his calls have been posted on celebrity website TMZ, and he told the 'Today' show in the US that he cried tears of joy after a civil jury recently decided the promoters of Jackson's comeback shows did not negligently hire him.
He did not, however, give evidence in the civil case or during his criminal trial.
Murray previously maintained clinics in Houston and Las Vegas and frequently complained about conditions in jail after his conviction.
He was allowed to serve his entire sentence in a Los Angeles jail rather than a state prison due to a law aimed at easing overcrowding by shifting non-violent offenders to local lock-ups.
Ms Wass said: "Dr Murray has not received any special treatment in jail and, in fact, has many less privileges than most inmates." She added that he "is looking forward to his release and getting on with his life".
Earlier this month, jurors in a lawsuit filed by Jackson's mother against concert giant AEG Live LLC decided the doctor was not unfit or incompetent to serve as Jackson's tour doctor.

SHOCKING! Mother Hid Baby In Boot Of Her Car For Two Years

The parents of a baby girl found close to death in the boot of her mother's car in France are escorted to court, where prosecutors told how car mechanics made the gruesome discovery

A baby girl was forced to live hidden in the boot of her mother's car for almost two years in a case that has appalled France and that investigators say "defies the imagination".
Mechanics carrying out repairs on a Peugeot 307 family estate in Terrasson-Lavilledieu in the Dordogne were alerted to the child's presence after hearing "strange noises that sounded like moans" coming from the rear of the vehicle.
The 45-year-old mother, a Portuguese woman named only as Rose-Marie, claimed that the noises came from "toys". But the mechanics insisted on opening the boot and were horrified to discover a small, dehydrated and apparently feverish child lying naked in her own excrement.
The mechanic who found the girl, Guillaume Iguacel, said yesterday that he was still in shock from the discovery.
"I'm still having trouble sleeping, it was a horrifying sight, seeing this little girl in her own excrement, not able to hold up her head, white as a sheet," he said.
Mr Iguacel said the mother appeared to have little concern for the girl. "We were deeply shocked because she didn't find this abnormal. We told her to remove the little girl (from the boot) and give her something to drink right away," he said.
Paramedics were called and the girl was taken to hospital. Her parents have been charged with child abuse and neglect.
Social services have taken into care their three other children – a four-year-old girl and two boys aged nine and 10.

The baby - found in her own excrement in the foul-smelling boot after mechanics heard 'strange noises that sounded like moans' - is thought to have been hidden there from birth

The mother told investigators that she had kept the child's existence from her husband, an unemployed builder, also Portuguese, whom police were unable to question at first because he was drunk. The mother said she gave birth alone and then hid the baby in the boot. She has no birth certificate and apparently no name.
"It appears that the child had been hidden from her birth, and, even worse, is seriously retarded," said Jean-Pierre Laffite, the prosecutor in nearby Brive-La-Gaillarde. He said the girl's height, weight and mental development did not conform to her age, estimated to be between 15 and 23 months. She cannot speak a word. "It's a situation that defies the imagination," he added.
Shocked neighbours in the couple's village of Brignac-la-Plaine in the department of Correze said they had no reason to suspect a hidden child.

AMAZING! These Five Songs Have All Been Used to Torture People

You thought Somali pirates got dealt a bad hand by being blasted with Britney’s ‘Oops I Did It Again?’ Here are five other songs that have been used to torture people. (Royalties, anyone?)

1. ‘I Love You’ by Barney the Dinosaur

There is no official data on how many American parents have already lost their minds due to an overdose of this cuddly monster, but American interrogators would surely know the figures, since ‘I Love You’ is cited as one of the most ‘overused’ songs in their arsenal. A U.S. operative told Newsweek in 2003 that he was forced to listen to the song for forty-five minutes during training. “I never want to go through that again,” he laconically stated.

2. ‘Panama’ by Van Halen

International law prevented a Navy SEAL team from hunting down Manuel Noriega in December 1989, after the Panamanian dictator took refuge in the Vatican embassy. However, it didn’t prevent the Americans from blasting the papal emissaries with some good old rock ‘n’ roll. After several days of being blasted by Van Halen, the Clash and the Howard Stern Show at deafening levels, representatives of the Holy See eventually handed over Noriega.

3. ‘The Real Slim Shady’ by Eminem

It is hard to fathom the horror of hearing Em’s nasal voice declaring: “May I have your attention please?” for a hundredth time straight, but that was Benyam Mohammad’s experience while detained at a secret U.S. prison in Kabul. He told Human Rights Watch that interrogators played Eminem and Dr. Dre continuously for twenty days, while depriving them of food and water. “Plenty lost their minds. I could hear people knocking their heads against the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off.”

4. ‘Copacabana’ by Barry Manilow

Road spikes and boom gates did nothing to deter teenage hoodlums from congregating along the seaside promenade in the Sydney suburb of Brighton Le Sands, where they would abuse residents and generally cause mayhem. Then shop owner Martin Corben came up with a plan: Pink lights and Barry Manilow. “Pink light…makes the skin look blotchy and shows up spots,” Corben the Australian media outlet ABC. “I don’t know why Barry Manilow popped into my head. Maybe it’s because Brighton is the Copacabana of south Sydney?” The pubescent nuisance was driven away. What happened to the sanity of other Brighton residents’ is, however, unknown.

5. ‘Born in the USA’ by Bruce Springsteen

Detainees at Guantanamo have said that the Springsteen hit has been played for years on end as a wake-up call at the compound—a weird choice, one would think, considering the song’s highly U.S.-critical lyrics. The same goes for Rage Against The Machine’s anti-American banger ‘Killing in the Name Of,’ which has also reportedly been played at Gitmo. The band’s guitarist Tom Morello is one of many musicians who have endorsed a demand that the government disclose the titles of all song titles used as a method of punishment and who have protested such use.

PICTURES: Al Maktoum International Airport, Dubai: The World's Newest Airport

A lesson for Nigeria to learn from, perhaps.

A flight carrying a little more than 100 passengers from Budapest touched down Sunday at Dubai's new Al Maktoum International Airport, a modest first arrival for a terminal designers hope will be the world's largest in just 10 years.
The United Arab Emirates' most flashy city-state, known for its high-flying ambitions, already gave the new airport the code DWC for Dubai World Central. The name mirrors Dubai's vision of itself as a connection point between east and west.
The airport's construction and development is forecast to cost more than $32 billion. When complete, it will have five runways capable of handling 160 million passengers a year. About 63 percent of that will be people in transit, said Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths at the inauguration of the new passenger terminal.
Aviation comprises 28 percent of Dubai's gross domestic product, some $22 billion a year. Much of the current revenue comes from Dubai International Airport, which is the fourth busiest airport in the world serving around 57 million passengers last year. That airport, though, is expected to reach its full capacity of 90 million passenger by 2020.
The new Al Maktoum International Airport is an attempt to hold Dubai's edge in the market.
"There is a lot of pressure to get the airport running," Griffiths said. "Its ambition is to be the world's largest airport and the world's largest hub."
Dubai's pivotal location on the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula makes it a gateway from Europe to the east, said Josef Varadi, CEO of the privately-owned Hungarian Wizz Air. His company's passenger flight was the first to arrive at the new airport.
The airport has been open since 2010 to cargo flights. Around 36 freight operators regularly operate at the airport.
However, with just three agreements signed with passenger airlines, DWC still has miles to go before it rivals other destinations.
DWC does not offer connection flights for transfer passengers yet. Construction of the airport's mega terminal is well behind schedule following the 2009 financial crisis. It is also tricky for passengers to travel to or from the sole working terminal without a car since the city's mass transit stops well before the airport.
Griffiths said there are plans being drafted for the airport by 2025 to accommodate the needs of Emirates, the Middle East's biggest airline. It currently bases out of Dubai International Airport.
He declined to say what kind of incentives were being offered to airlines to lure them to DWC. He said the city-state's landing fees are already considerably low compared to other airports around the world.
Griffiths also said there are no plans in place to close Dubai International Airport, but that ultimately the decision will be determined by air-space capacity.
"That's not a decision we have to make probably for the next 30 to 40 years," he said.

The airport is serviced by one A380 capable runway, 64 remote aircraft stands and currently has capacity for up to seven million passengers per year.

Dubai Duty Free counters at the new Al Maktoum airport. The new facility is equipped to offer retail, food and beverage amenities.

Check-in counters at the new airport. Construction of DWC’s passenger terminal building was completed in 2012.

Passengers leave the aircraft after Wizz Air lands at the newly opened Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013.

Passengers check-in at the newly opened Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Upon completion in the mid 2020s, DWC will become the world’s largest airport with an ultimate capacity of 160 million passengers.

 

 

No Sack: Aviation Minister May Be Redeployed Over N255 Million Car Purchase

 

Despite calls for her sack all around the country, indications have shown that the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, will be redeployed rather than relieved of her duties.

The minister has been under fire after details of a N255 million bullet-proof car purchase, allegedly ordered by her, were revealed to the general public.

According to reports, President Goodluck Jonathan may have decided to let Oduah off easy by reassigning her to another portfolio rather than hanging her out to dry.

Leadership News reports:

Although the call from a critical segment of the public is for her removal from cabinet for allegedly allowing her personal interests to override national interest, a highly placed presidential source told LEADERSHIP last night that “the minister might be given a soft landing treatment”.
Oduah has been at the centre of a controversy over bullet proof cars worth $1.6m (N255m), purchased for her by an agency under her watch at a time when the last air disaster just occurred, the second since her appointment as the minister.
The situation is further compounded by discordant tunes from the NCAA and her spokesman, who gave different accounts of the reason for the purchase of the cars.
Human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana (SAN) and Dino Melaye, a former member of the House of Representatives have been in the forefront of a campaign asking for her sack.
But, speaking under the condition of anonymity, on the grounds that he was not authorised to speak on the matter, a government official who commended the media and the human rights community, explained that the greatest sanction Oduah could be given was her redeployment from the ministry instead of outright removal.
“I have been monitoring the media reports on the bullet proof cars bought by the NCAA. In the first instance, it was wrong of her to fall into such a trap. This is what the senators call ‘banana peels’. Look at the timing. We are still mourning those who died in the last plane crash, the second under the woman’s watch. And with the cost of the two cars when the National Assembly and the NNPC are still fighting over the Federation Account proceeds. All these are her problems.
“But let me tell you the bitter truth, despite the deafening call for her sack, that minister might be given a soft landing treatment, not because of who she is, but because of what she has done in the past, especially the role she played during the last fuel pump price crisis. That woman hijacked the Information Ministry and that of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), and educated Nigerians over why the sector must be deregulated. So the worst thing that could happen to her is to be redeployed from that ministry.
“Don’t forget that Oduah played a tremendous role in the election of Jonathan in 2011 through the Neighbour-2-Neighbour campaign group,” the official said.
Oduah’s problems began when an online news medium, SaharaReporters broke the news that the Aviation Ministry had purchased two bullet proof cars and that they were delivered to the minister in August.
It reported that documents in its possession showed that the transaction for the purchase of the two BMW cars started in June, but the request for the delivery and payment for them was fast tracked between August 13 and 15, 2013.
The National Assembly has shown interest in the matter. The two chambers will investigate the saga with a view to verifying when the cars were purchased and if due process was followed and especially, if the purchase was in this year’s Appropriation Act.