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Do you know this lady?

An unidentified Lady was found dead close to Ekpoma Market in Edo state.

From various sources, it was learnt that her breasts were removed and her vagina was burnt with fire.

This appears to be a ritual killing

ecolime:

What of 'Oba of Benin'?

Oba of Benin is a sacred Oba

I will never blame anyone for committing suicide because this country is too had, and no one cares whether you are stranded or not.
Those with the resources to help are not willing to lend a helping hand.
Those with philanthropic mind are short of resources.

Nigeria ladies always accusing men of sexual harassment.

Is not only your bra they removed, I'm sure they also bleeped your rotten toto.

Idiots

sapphiere:
Don't use what is happening on NL to judge over 200m people. Did you see the food shared across the country for EndSARS protesters? If the youths weren't united, do you thinK this protest would've achieved this huge success?


In less than 2 hours, the account racked over the targetted amount. And I believe both Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa have donated. Both Christians and Muslims have donated.

Stop deceiving yourself. The bitter truth is: we are far from being united as a country

The young man is simply saying the truth.
Those living in Lagos and Abuja feels they are the only ones in this country.

They look down on others with disdain. They want to be the only beneficiaries of government policies and programs.

The truth is that, the government is not our only problem; we the citizens also serves a major problem to ourselves.

boscolly:
poster why u too dey lie like this... this man looks older than 34yrs old

Exactly my thought

Too much of everything is bad.
Always know when and where to stop in order not to lose your relevance.

The protesters have over stepped their boundary.

They deserve whatever ill treatment given to them.

The main purpose for the protest has been achieved, so why are they still constituting nuisance on the streets.

BrownLondon:
#EndSARS

#EndPoliceBrutalityInNigeria

https://mobile.twitter.com/iam_doctormayor/status/1315946317596831745

Who is Toyin Abrahim?
His name doesn’t ring a bell

UdyOgwoUde:


Mumu.

Because those criminals have not harrassed you before, na why you dey open mouth.

Na you do wetin make them harassed you.

Security agents will certainly harass criminal elements in a society

juliabobly65:
Hello nairalanders, I need your opinions on this matter.

My boyfriend of 3 years who is now my fiancee (we are talking marriage already) is constantly talking to his ex girlfriend (who is now married).

They discuss all manner of things, ranging from how she misses him and wished she had waited for him.

Trouble started when he told her he was planning to settle down (I still wonder why he told her) ever since she's always coming up with pots of lies against me. She claims someone told her so many things about me.

She fabricating lies isn't my major concern because I know once something good is about to happen the devil comes in many ways than one to destroy it.

I've told my man all about my past life and everything in it, recently he accused me of withholding some information of my past. The ex girlfriend had a chat with and told him things I don't even know about.

Nairalanders this lady is married, why is she poke nosing into our affair?? If she loved him that much, why did she marry another man?? Why is my man giving her audience Is he still in love with her I know she's obsessed about me. Her constant chats with him, makes him accuse me of things I've never done in my entire life.

I told him we should suspend the marriage until he's done with his investigation since he doesn't believe me cos he said if he finds out something I did in my past in the future and I didn't tell him it will be a problem.

Admins pls push to front page.

Why are you so scared of your past, or are you a retired olosho?

ZINIBANKS:

Whatever has he stolen from you before
You guys should stop hating on people if you also want to make

Same way you fools were justifying hushpuppy when the criminal was flaunting his ill gotten wealth, until he was caught.

Someone with legitimate wealth doesn’t have time for public show off.

Three sisters killed their father. Despite a history of abuse, they're facing murder charges

Mikhail Khachaturyan's body was found on a staircase in a Moscow apartment block in July 2018, with dozens of knife wounds to his chest and neck.

A few hours before his death, he had returned from a psychiatric clinic, lined up his three daughters to chastise them for the messy apartment, and pepper-sprayed their faces, according to investigators and the sisters' lawyers. His eldest daughter Krestina, who has asthma, fainted.

That was the night that the Khachaturyan sisters -- Krestina, 19, Angelina, 18, and Maria, 17 -- decided to kill their father. They attacked him with a hammer, a knife, and the same can of pepper spray he had turned on them earlier.

Interrogation transcripts leaked to the press, and verified to journalists by a lawyer for one of the sisters, show that the women tried to inflict wounds on themselves to make it seem as if their father, who was sleeping at the start of the attack, had struck them with a knife first. Then they called the police and an ambulance.

The next day the three were arrested and confessed to the killing, saying they had endured years of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse from their father, according to their lawyers and the Russian prosecutor general's office.

Last summer the sisters were indicted on charges of premeditated murder, sparking an uproar among activists in Russia, which is grappling with a far-reaching domestic abuse problem.

The Khachaturyans' case quickly became a cause celebre for rights groups fighting to pass a law to protect victims of domestic abuse which was shelved by parliament in 2016.

After a long and tangled pre-trial investigation, their trial opens Friday in a Moscow courtroom. The two elder sisters, Krestina and Angelina, will stand trial together. Maria, who was a minor at the time of the killing but indicted after she turned 18, has also been deemed mentally unfit to commit murder and will be tried separately on a murder charge, according to one of the sisters' lawyers, Aleksey Liptser.

Domestic violence experts, along with the sisters' defense team, say that in the absence of adequate protective mechanisms within law enforcement and the court system, their only choice was to defend themselves or eventually die at their father's hands.

In-text conversations obtained from their father's phone and published on Facebook by Liptser, Mikhail Khachaturyan appeared to have threatened to kill them and sexually abuse them and their mother.

"I will beat you up for everything, I will kill you," says one text from April 2018, accusing them of having sexual relations with a male friend. "You are prostitutes and you will die as prostitutes."
The interrogation transcripts also painted a chilling picture of mental, physical, and sexual abuse dating at least four years prior to the killing.

"We think that they had no other choice. The father drove the girls to despair, their whole life was a continuous hell. They cannot be compared to healthy, calm, and balanced people ... [the] girls developed serious mental illnesses, including abuse syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder. This was confirmed by all examinations in the case," said one of the sisters' lawyers, Aleksey Parshin.

Since last summer, activists have organized dozens of demonstrations in support of the sisters under the "I did not want to die" campaign, calling on authorities to reclassify the case around the sisters' self-defense.

Celebrities ranging from former presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak to the System of a Down singer Serj Tankian have issued pleas for leniency in the sisters' case.

A 2019 survey conducted by the independent pollster Levada Center showed that 47% of Russian women and 33% of men felt the actions of the Khachaturyan sisters were justified.

A 2019 investigation by Media Zona, a Russian outlet covering justice and prisons, said that almost 80% of Russian women imprisoned for premeditated murder in 2016-2018 were trying to protect themselves from an abuser.

While Russian lawmakers have left the domestic violence bill on the backburner since 2016, they did find time to decriminalize some forms of abuse three years ago.

In 2017, under pressure from the Russian Orthodox Church and defenders of "traditional values," parliament overwhelmingly approved a bill that became known as the "slapping law," which decriminalized first offense of domestic violence that does not seriously injure the person, making it a less serious administrative offense.

At first, public pressure seemed to have turned the case around for the Khachaturyan sisters.
In January, the prosecutor's office confirmed allegations made by the defense that the Khachaturyan sisters had suffered "beating, constant humiliation, threats and abuse, physical and sexual violence," and that they had developed a "defensive reaction."

The prosecutors then ordered the Investigative Committee to reclassify the case from premeditated murder to necessary self-defense.

Parshin told state-news agency TASS at the time that the move "essentially means the end of a criminal investigation" against the sisters, who faced up to 20 years in prison under the premeditated murder charge.

But in a stunning reversal, Viktor Grin, the same prosecutor who first recommended downgrading the case, confirmed in May that premeditated murder charges would indeed be laid against the sisters. No explanation was given for the change.

Mari Davtyan, a lawyer for the sisters who often represents victims of domestic abuse, linked the reversal to a wider trend of dismissing human rights that have been growing since the passage of controversial amendments to the Russian constitution following a referendum on July 1.

The referendum, designed to solidify President Vladimir Putin's rule for years to come, was followed by a string of high-profile arrests, like the state treason charges brought against former journalist Ivan Safronov, or the prosecution of the ex-governor of Khabarovsk, Sergey Furgal, who has been whisked away to Moscow on years-old murder charges, prompting mass protests in Russia's the Far East. Both deny any wrongdoing.

"I think it's impossible not to notice what's been going on every day since July 1, 2020, the state has chosen its path," Davtyan wrote on her Facebook page. "And the Khachaturyan case is no exception."
Three sisters killed their father. Despite a history of abuse, they're facing murder charges

What is your definition of innocent?
Many people uses that word wrongly .

Georgekyrian:
OP that girl is very innocent and that's why she confided in you. How can you say you love her, and knowing all her ways before now, you come Finally ask her out and still having double mind, person wey you called a Bestie.
The last time I checked best friends
makes the best marriages, so rethink

RIP lady

Kobojunkie:
This is ridiculous!

Exactly

Montana man accused of over 60 child sex abuse crimes gets one-year sentence

A man in Montana who was initially charged with more than 60 counts of child sex abuse has received a deferred one-year sentence after agreeing to a plea deal, according to reports.

William Edward Miller Jr., 51, of Great Falls, was arrested in February 2019 after a 14-year-old high school student accused him of raping her at her home a year prior. She alleged that Miller allowed an 11-year-old boy to rape her while he watched in a separate encounter.

Later that August, state prosecutors filed 64 counts of sexual abuse of children against Miller after investigators allegedly found images of child pornography and bestiality on his phone and laptop, the Great Falls Tribune reported. Police received a search warrant on his home after Miller allegedly began calling people from jail asking them to destroy his phone, KFBB reported.

Miller would later accept a plea deal that involved prosecutors dropping the majority of the charges against him. He pleaded guilty to one count of felony sexual abuse of children and one count of misdemeanor unsworn falsification to authorities.

Cascade County District Judge Elizabeth Best on Monday sentenced Miller to six months in the Cascade County Detention Center for the misdemeanor. He received credit for 384 days of time served.

On the felony charge, Miller was slapped with a one-year deferred sentence and was ordered to complete sex offender treatment in the community, according to the Tribune. Under a deferred sentence, the child sex abuse charge could be wiped from Miller’s record if he doesn’t commit a crime over the next year, according to KFBB.

The felony count for which Miller pleaded guilty came in connection to a photograph of then 17-year-old Shiloh Young. The woman, now 19, has been married to Miller for three months and testified that she took the photo herself two years ago to help her overcome body issues.

“William is a kind, compassionate, empathetic man. Never has he manipulated or controlled me,” Young told the judge, according to the Tribune. “I ask that we be free of this charge. I feel that we have suffered enough, and I am not a victim of my husband.”
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Oxford's Covid-19 vaccine appears safe and induces immune response, early results suggest, but more research is needed

Adrian Hill, the lead researcher in Oxford University’s vaccine test on humans, shares encouraging results from their testing, and says they are still hoping to have a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of the year.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RTaZjahDXw

Results from trials involving three different coronavirus vaccines released Monday, all showing positive results, with evidence the vaccines can produce immune responses that would be expected to protect people against infection.

They all also appeared to be safe, although it will take studies with more people to show how safe they really are and whether they can prevent infection.

Early results of a closely watched Phase 1/2 trial published in The Lancet suggest a coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca is safe and induces an immune response. However, researchers stressed more study is needed to know whether the vaccine protects people against the virus.

Phase 2 results for one vaccine candidate made by Chinese company CanSino Biologics were also published in the medical journal The Lancet and early results from Phase 1/2 trials of the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech were released in a pre-print paper that has not yet been peer-reviewed.

The Oxford vaccine prompted an antibody response within 28 days and a T-cell response within 14 days, according to the results published Monday. Neutralizing antibodies — so-called because they can neutralize the virus — were detected in most participants after one shot, and in all of them after two.

That’s good news, researchers said. “The immune system has two ways of finding and attacking pathogens — antibody and T cell responses. This vaccine is intended to induce both, so it can attack the virus when it’s circulating in the body, as well as attacking infected cells,” University of Oxford pediatrician Dr. Andrew Pollard, the study’s lead author, said in a statement.

“We hope this means the immune system will remember the virus so that our vaccine will protect people for an extended period. However, we need more research before we can confirm the vaccine effectively protects against SARS-CoV-2 infection, and for how long any protection lasts.”

It’s also not clear how well the vaccine would perform in older people who are more at risk of severe disease from Covid-19.

The vaccine trial included 1,077 people age 18 to 55 with no history of coronavirus infection and took place in five UK hospitals from late April to late May. Participants received the Covid-19 vaccine or a meningitis vaccine.

There were no serious adverse events related to the vaccine; fatigue and headache were the most commonly reported reactions. Other common side effects included pain at the injection site, muscle ache, malaise, chills, feeling feverish and high temperature.

‘There’s a long way to go’
These Phase 1/2 results were promising, researchers said, but large-scale trials are needed to determine whether the vaccine protects against the coronavirus.

“The key elements required to proceed to a Phase 3 trial are all there,” Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the Science Media Center in the UK about the Oxford trial.

“The responses measured in the blood and the absence of serious harms indicate there is a possibility of an effective vaccine against Covid-19. It does not yet show that the disease is reduced or prevented, and this will not be easy to show until phase 3 trials have been completed in settings where the SARS Cov-2 virus is circulating at a high rate and people are getting the clinical and severe disease.”

A Phase 1 study typically studies a small number of people and focuses on whether a vaccine is safe and elicits an immune response. In Phase 2, the clinical study is expanded and the vaccine is given to people who have characteristics — such as age and physical health — similar to those for whom the new vaccine is intended, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Phase 3, the vaccine is given to thousands of people and tested for efficacy and again for safety.

Phase 2/3 trials of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are currently underway in the UK, Brazil, and South Africa, and later-phase trials are expected to start in the United States in August.

“This is a positive result, but again there’s a long way to go. These are Phase 1 studies. We now need to move into larger-scale real-world trials, but it is good to see more data and more products moving into this very important phase of vaccine discovery,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization Health Emergencies Program, said during a briefing on Monday.

Oxford vaccine expert Adrian Hill said the team is looking at trying both one and two doses in Phase 3 participants.

AstraZeneca says it has secured capacity to produce 2 billion doses of the vaccine.

“If possible, there’ll be a vaccine being used by the end of the year,” Hill said.

There are 23 Covid-19 vaccines currently in clinical trials globally, according to the World Health Organization.

CanSino vaccine Phase 2 results published
More Phase 2 results published Monday suggested CanSino Biologics’ vaccine was safe and created an immune response. The trial, conducted in Wuhan, China, in April, involved more than 500 people given high, low, or placebo doses of the vaccine, the release said.

The trial found that 95% of the participants in the high dosage group and 91% in the low dosage group showed either T-cell or antibody immune responses 28 days after vaccination. In the high dosage group, neutralizing antibody responses were induced in 59% and binding antibody responses in 96%. Binding antibodies attach to a virus but don’t stop it from infecting cells.

About half of the people who got the low dose developed neutralizing antibodies.

Most adverse reactions were mild or moderate. Nine percent of the participants in the high-dose group had severe adverse reactions within 28 days, the most common of which was a fever.

This vaccine uses a weakened human cold virus called an adenovirus to deliver genetic material mimicking coronavirus. So there is a danger that people who have been infected by that adenovirus in the past could have immunity that may “partially hamper the specific immune responses to vaccination.” Compared to younger people in the study, older participants had a significantly lower immune response and tolerated the vaccine better.

“Since elderly individuals face a high risk of serious illness and even death associated with COVID-19 infection, they are an important target population for a COVID-19 vaccine,” one of the study authors, Wei Chen, an expert on antibody engineering at the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, said in a statement. “It is possible that an additional dose may be needed in order to induce a stronger immune response in the elderly population, but further research is underway to evaluate this.”

In a commentary also published in The Lancet, Naor Bar-Zeev and Dr. William J. Moss of the International Vaccine Access Center and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health wrote that the trials were “broadly similar and promising,” and the safety data “reassuring.”

But questions remain about how long an immune response will last and how the vaccines will impact older populations, people with particular health conditions that put them at risk, and racial and ethnic groups more severely affected by Covid-19, they said.

“When things are urgent, we must proceed cautiously,” they wrote. “The success of COVID-19 vaccines hinges on community trust in vaccine sciences, which requires comprehensive and transparent evaluation of risk and honest communication of potential harms.”

More vaccine data from Pfizer, BioNTech
Also on Monday, US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German biotechnology company BioNTech reported their Covid-19 vaccine candidate elicited a “robust” antibody and T-cell immune responses in an early Phase 1/2 study.

The data has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal but was published in a pre-print paper to the online server medRxiv.org on Monday.

The findings mirror previous data among US participants in the study, which were announced earlier this month.

“It is encouraging that the data on BNT162b1 from the German study cohort are very much in line with what we have seen in the U.S. study cohort,” Dr. Özlem Türeci, chief medical officer and co-founder of BioNTech, said in Monday’s press release.

“The preliminary data indicate that our mRNA-based vaccine was able to stimulate antibody as well as T-cell responses at remarkably low dose levels,” Türeci said. “We believe both may play an important role in achieving effective clearance of a pathogen such as SARS-CoV-2.”

The German trial included 60 healthy adults ages 18 to 55 who were randomly assigned to receive varying doses of the vaccine.

The release also notes that there were some local reactions and mild to moderate adverse events, including some with flu-like symptoms and injection site reactions. All events resolved spontaneously and were managed with simple measures, according to the release. No serious adverse events were reported.

A Phase 3 vaccine trial that might involve up to 30,000 healthy participants is expected to begin in late July, if it receives regulatory approval, BioNTech and Pfizer said.
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"There will be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future," WHO director-general says


Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said Monday “There will be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future."

Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva, he added, “But there is a roadmap to a situation where we can control the disease and get on with our lives.”

“We need to reach a sustainable situation where we do have adequate control of this virus without shutting down our lives entirely or lurching from lockdown to lockdown,” he said.

In order to get to this place, Tedros said that three things would be required. These are a focus on reducing mortality and suppressing transmission; an “empowered, engaged community” that takes individual measures to protect the whole community; and strong government leadership and communication.

“It can be done. It must be done,” Tedros said.
Tedros said that there are no shortcuts out of this pandemic and that while we hope for an effective vaccine, there must be a focus on using the tools that are available now to suppress transmission and save lives.
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Nelson Mandela's daughter Zindzi dies at 59

Zindzi Mandela, the youngest daughter of South Africa's first black president Nelson Mandela and anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, has died at the age of 59.

She died in a Johannesburg hospital in the early hours of Monday morning, public broadcaster SABC said.

She was an activist in her own right and was serving as ambassador to Denmark at the time of her death.

The cause of her death was not immediately revealed.

Zindzi Mandela was Nelson Mandela's sixth child and his second with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, his second wife.

President Cyril Ramaphosa in a statement said Zindzi Mandela had "during our years of struggle brought home the inhumanity of the apartheid system and the unshakeable resolve of our fight for freedom".

Ms. Mandela had been posted to Denmark in 2015 and had been designated to become South Africa's head of mission in Monrovia, Liberia.

Minister of International Relations Naledi Pandor said: "Zindzi will not only be remembered as a daughter of our struggle heroes but as a struggle heroine in her own right."

Ms. Mandela grew up at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle. With her father imprisoned on Robben Island, she endured years of harassment and intimidation by the apartheid regime, along with her sister Zenani, and her mother Winnie.

Zindzi Mandela was the family member who read out Nelson Mandela's rejection of then-president PW Botha's offer for conditional release from prison at a public meeting in February 1985.

Through his foundation, Nobel peace laureate and former archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu said that "speech in Soweto, on behalf of her father... reinvigorated the values and principles of the struggle".

Ms. Mandela "played a critical role symbolising the humanity and steadfastness of the anti-apartheid struggle", he added.

Most recently, she was known for her vocal support for radical land reform in South Africa, our correspondent says.

Only two of Nelson Mandela's six children are still alive: Zenani Dlamini, Zindzi's sister; and Pumla Makaziwe Mandela, a daughter from his first marriage, to Evelyn Mase.
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He flaunted private jets and luxury cars on Instagram. Feds used his posts to link him to alleged cyber crimes

Ramon Abbas flaunted a lavish lifestyle of private jets, designer clothes, and luxury cars.

To his 2.5 million Instagram followers, he went by Ray Hushpuppi, a man who boarded helicopters from his Dubai waterfront apartment and walked around with shopping bags from Gucci, Versace, and Fendi.

On social media, where he posted a video of himself tossing wads of cash like confetti, he told his followers he was a real estate developer. But a federal affidavit alleged his extravagant lifestyle was financed through hacking schemes that stole millions of dollars from major companies in the United States and Europe.

His flamboyant posts left a digital trail of evidence that investigators used to link him to the crimes, the affidavit shows.

Last month, United Arab Emirates investigators swooped into his Dubai apartment, arrested him, and handed him over to FBI agents, who flew him to Chicago on July 2, federal officials said.

In the coming weeks, he'll be transferred to Los Angeles -- where the affidavit was filed -- to face accusations of conspiring to launder hundreds of millions of dollars through cybercrime schemes.


$41 million and 13 luxury cars seized
The Nigerian national lived at the exclusive Palazzo Versace in Dubai, and led a global network that used computer intrusions, business email compromise schemes, and money laundering to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from companies, federal prosecutors allege.

He worked with multiple co-conspirators and was arrested along with 11 others. Investigators seized nearly $41 million, 13 luxury cars worth $6.8 million, and phone and computer evidence, Dubai Police said in a statement. They uncovered email addresses of nearly 2 million possible victims on phones, computers, and hard drives, Dubai authorities said.

"This case targets a key player in a large, transnational conspiracy who was living an opulent lifestyle in another country while allegedly providing safe havens for stolen money around the world," US Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement.

Abbas' attorney, Gal Pissetzky, declined to get into details on how his client earns his money. But what he does for a living is going to be "one of the main points of contention here," he told CNN.

Pissetzky called his client's arrest a kidnapping, saying Dubai handed him to the United States with "no legal proceedings whatsoever." Abbas has not been formally indicted, and the government has 30 days to indict him, his attorney said Thursday.


His birthday post helped track him down
Abbas made no secret of his opulent lifestyle and remarkable wealth. On Snapchat, he called himself the "Billionaire Gucci Master."

"Started out my day having sushi down at Nobu in Monte Carlo, Monaco, then decided to book a helicopter to have ... facials at the Christian Dior spa in Paris then ended my day having champagne in Gucci," he posted on Instagram.

Photos of him displaying multiple models of Bentley, Ferrari, Mercedes, and Rolls Royce cars included the hashtag #AllMine. Others show him rubbing elbows with international sports stars and other celebrities.

In the affidavit, federal officials detailed how his social media accounts provided a treasure trove of information to confirm his identity. His Instagram, for example, had an email and phone number saved for account security purposes. Federal officials got that information and linked that email and phone number to financial transactions and transfers with people the FBI believed were his co-conspirators.

"The email account ... also contained emails with attachments relating to wire transfers in large dollar values," the affidavit said.

His Apple and Snapchat records also provided information that helped investigators confirm his identity, address, and communications with other suspects. Even his Instagram birthday celebration photos provided key information.

One post displayed a birthday cake topped with a Fendi logo and a miniature image of him surrounded by tiny shopping bags. Investigators used that post to verify his date of birth on a previous US visa application.


Companies targeted spanned two continents
His alleged cybercrimes involved jaw-dropping amounts of money.
Federal documents detailed how a paralegal at a New York law firm wired nearly $923,000 meant for a client's real estate refinancing to a bank account controlled by Abbas and his co-conspirators.

The paralegal had received fraudulent wire instructions after sending an email to what appeared to be a bank email address but was later identified as a "spoofed" email address, the affidavit said.

Abbas sent a co-conspirator an image of the wire transfer confirmation for the transaction, according to the affidavit. He and an unnamed person also conspired to launder $14.7 million from a foreign financial institution last year, according to a criminal complaint.

During that alleged cybercrime, Abbas sent a co-conspirator the account information for a Romanian bank account, which he said could be used for "large amounts." In other alleged schemes, he also provided Dubai bank accounts that can be used to deposit money from victims in the United States, the affidavit said.

He's also accused of conspiring to try to steal $124 million from an unnamed English Premier League soccer club. But it's unclear whether the attempt was successful.


FBI recorded $1.7 billion in losses from such scams
Business email compromise schemes are sophisticated scams that involve a hacker redirecting business email account communications to try and intercept wire transfers.

"BEC schemes are one of the most difficult cyber crimes we encounter as they typically involve a coordinated group of con artists scattered around the world who have experience with computer hacking and exploiting the international financial system," Hanna said.

Last year alone, the FBI recorded $1.7 billion in losses by companies and individuals victimized through business email compromise scams, according to Paul Delacourt of the FBI field office in Los Angeles.

If convicted of money laundering, Abbas faces up to 20 years in prison. His bond hearing is set for Monday.

His transfer to Los Angeles has been complicated by logistics linked to coronavirus, his attorney said.
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Florida shatters largest single-day record of coronavirus infections in US while world sees cases spike

Florida set a new national record for the largest daily increase in coronavirus cases in the United States on Sunday, while infections continue to spike around the world.

The state added at least 15,299 positive COVID-19 cases, for a total of 269,811, and recorded 45 more deaths, according to state Department of Health statistics.

California had the previous record of daily positive cases — 11,694, set on Wednesday. New York had 11,571 on April 15.

Florida has had a record-breaking week leading to the all-time surge in cases. The state reported 514 fatalities last week, averaging 73 deaths per day. Three weeks ago, the daily average was 30 deaths.

The total number of deaths in Florida climbed to at least 4,242 on Sunday, according to the state.

Florida has nearly doubled its testing over the last month to almost 50,000 per day. The percentage of people testing positive has also risen, with the daily average over the past week exceeding 19 percent. A month ago, fewer than 5 percent of tests came up positive on a daily average.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said even with the rising rates, he still wants the schools to reopen as scheduled next month, saying children have not proven to be vectors for the disease in states and countries where campuses are open.

“We know there are huge, huge costs for not providing the availability of in-person schooling,” he said. “The risk of coronavirus, fortunately, for students is incredibly low.”

Florida's grim record comes as the World Health Organization reported a record increase in global COVID-19 cases, with 230,370 more infections recorded in 24 hours. The global average of daily deaths has remained at about 5,000 per day.

The world's largest single-day increases have come from the Americas, according to the WHO daily report.

The two countries leading the region are the U.S., with more than 66,000 new cases, and Brazil, which reported more than 45,000 new infections in 24 hours.

Europe recorded nearly 19,000 new cases, while the number of new infections in Africa climbed by almost 18,000. China reported just 35 new cases.

The global number of confirmed cases was approaching 13 million on Sunday, while the death toll climbed over 560,000.
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French bus driver dies after brutal attack by passengers who refused to wear face masks

A French bus driver has died after he was savagely beaten by passengers who refused to wear face masks.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tidkh9s9efc

Prime Minister Jean Castex confirmed Philippe Monguillot’s death on Friday.

Monguillot was hospitalized and declared brain dead after the July 5 attack at a bus stop in Bayonne, in southwest France.

His 18-year-old daughter, Marie Monguillot, told Agence France-Presse that doctors and the family decided it was time “to let him go” and take him off life support.

Monguillot was dragged off his No. 810 bus and violently beaten and kicked in the head after he asked four passengers to wear face masks, the Bayonne prosecutor said. Masks are required on French public transportation because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Four people are in custody, authorities said.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin traveled to meet Monguillot’s widow after news of his death.

“This bus driver was only doing his job,” Darmanin said. "He left his home in the morning and did not come back, leaving a widow and three orphan girls. It is an absolutely odious act."

The widow, Veronique Monguillot, said she told Darmanin that the family was “destroyed” by the brutal attack and called for “exemplary punishment” of those convicted of the slaying.

“We must bang a fist on the table, so this never happens again,” she said. “It's barbaric, not normal. We must stop this massacre."

France has more than 208,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and over 30,000 virus-related deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
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South African church attack: Five dead after 'hostage situation'

Five people have been killed after attackers stormed a South African church, reportedly amid an argument over its leadership.

South African police said they had rescued men, women, and children from a "hostage situation" on the outskirts of Johannesburg on Saturday morning.

They have also arrested at least 40 people and seized dozens of weapons.

Eyewitnesses say the men who stormed the International Pentecostal Holiness Church were part of a splinter group.

The church's leadership has reportedly been the subject of infighting since its former leader died in 2016. Police had previously been called to the church following a shoot out between members in 2018, South Africa's IOL reports.

The year before, the church's finances had come under the spotlight, amid allegations some 110m rand ($6.5m; £5.2m) had gone missing, according to The Sowetan newspaper.

On Saturday, police were called to the church in Zuurbekom in the West Rand at 03:00 local time (01:00 GMT).

According to national police spokesperson Brigadier Vish Naidoo, a group of attackers indicated to those inside "that they were coming to take over the premises".

He said four people had been found shot and burnt to death in cars, while a security guard, who was thought to have been responding to the incident, was also fatally shot.

Five rifles, 16 shotguns, and 13 pistols, along with other weapons, were found at the church, which police have been combing for evidence.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) said that among those arrested were members of SAPS, the South African National Defence Force, the Johannesburg Metro Police Department, and the Department of Correctional Services.

The International Pentecostal Holiness Church is thought to have about three million members in Southern Africa.

Congregants fearful of another attack
While the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, one of the largest churches in that region, has made tabloid headlines over missing money and its leadership squabbles in the last few years, what happened on Saturday took many by surprise - including authorities.

Now, police say they have launched a high-level investigation looking into the exact circumstances around the shooting - not least, who ordered the attack.

Part of the investigation is trying to ascertain whether the four people who were killed and burnt inside a car were part of the group who had earlier stormed into the church.

"We've arrested all those we reasonably believed are suspects. They have been taking in for questioning," said police spokesperson Vish Naidoo.

As night falls, police officers have been deployed to monitor the safety of hundreds of congregants living on the church premises who are said to be fearful of another attack.
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Florida man and his sons charged with selling toxic chemical as a coronavirus cure to thousands

Three months after President Donald Trump suggested ingesting disinfectants as a treatment for coronavirus, a Florida man and his three sons are facing criminal charges for allegedly selling a toxic solution to tens of thousands of people as a cure for Covid-19.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEsEVMFCPHA

Mark Grenon, 62, and his sons, Jonathan, 34, Joseph, 32, and Jordan, 26, all of Bradenton, Florida, supposedly manufactured, promoted, and sold "Miracle Mineral Solution" (MMS), a chemical solution containing sodium chlorite and water, the criminal complaint affidavit says.

The men sold the toxic bleach under the guise of Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, an entity they allegedly created in an attempt to avoid government regulation, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement.

They've been charged with criminal contempt, conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act for their alleged actions, the US Attorney's Office said.

Reporters haven't been able to reach the Grenons or their lawyers for comment.
The men allegedly claimed that MMS could prevent, treat, and cure Covid-19, according to federal prosecutors.

They're accused of telling customers to orally ingest the chemical, "which causes the solution to become chlorine dioxide, a powerful bleach, typically used for industrial water treatment or bleaching textiles, pulp, and paper," federal prosecutors said.

The Grenons allegedly sold tens of thousands of bottles of MMS nationwide, including to consumers throughout South Florida.

The US Food and Drug Administration has not approved MMS for treatment of Covid-19, or for any other use, but has received reports of people requiring hospitalizations, developing life-threatening conditions, and dying after drinking MMS, according to the US Attorney's Office.

"The Genesis II Church of Health and Healing has actively and deliberately placed consumers at risk with their fraudulent Miracle Mineral Solution, and Americans expect and deserve medical treatments that have been scientifically proven to be safe and effective," said Catherine Hermsen, assistant commissioner of the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations.

"We commend the efforts of our law enforcement partners for vigorously investigating this matter. The FDA will continue our efforts to make sure these and other like-minded sellers do not jeopardize the health of Americans during this pandemic and in the future," she continued.

In April, the FDA had already sent a warning letter to Genesis II Church of Health and Healing and multiple websites associated with the firm.

The agency has also issued previous warnings that chlorine dioxide poses a significant risk to health and is not shown to be safe and effective for any health use.

The affidavit also alleges that the Grenons had previously marketed MMS as a miracle cure-all for dozens of other serious diseases and disorders, including cancer, Alzheimer's, autism, multiple sclerosis, and HIV/AIDS.
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How coronavirus affects the entire body

Coronavirus damages not only the lungs, but the kidneys, liver, heart, brain and nervous system, skin and gastrointestinal tract, doctors said Friday in a review of reports about Covid-19 patients.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qp6JHJ_ppE

The team at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City — one of the hospitals flooded with patients in the spring — went through their own experiences and collected reports from other medical teams around the world.

Their comprehensive picture shows the coronavirus attacks virtually every major system in the human body, directly damaging organs and causing the blood to clot, the heart to lose its healthy rhythm, the kidneys to shed blood and protein and the skin to erupt in rashes.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj1nUFFVK1E

It causes headaches, dizziness, muscle aches, stomach pain, and other symptoms along with classic respiratory symptoms like coughing and fever.

"Physicians need to think of COVID-19 as a multisystem disease," said Dr. Aakriti Gupta, a cardiology fellow at Columbia who worked on the review, in a statement.

"There's a lot of news about clotting but it's also important to understand that a substantial proportion of these patients suffer kidney, heart, and brain damage, and physicians need to treat those conditions along with the respiratory disease."

Much of the damage wrought by the virus appears to come because of its affinity for a receptor — a kind of molecular doorway into cells — called ACE2.

Cells lining the blood vessels, in the kidneys, the liver ducts, the pancreas, in the intestinal tract and lining the respiratory tract all are covered with ACE2 receptors, which the virus can use to grapple and infect cells, the Columbia team wrote in their review, published in the journal Nature Medicine.

"These findings suggest that multiple-organ injury may occur at least in part due to direct viral tissue damage," the team wrote.

Coronavirus infection also activates the immune system. Part of that response includes the production of inflammatory proteins called cytokines. This inflammation can damage cells and organs and the so-called cytokine storm is one of the causes of severe symptoms.

"This virus is unusual and it's hard not to take a step back and not be impressed by how many manifestations it has on the human body," Dr. Mahesh Madhavan, another cardiology fellow who worked on the review, said in a statement,

Blood clotting effects appear to be caused by several different mechanisms: direct damage of the cells lining the blood vessels and interference with the various clotting mechanisms in the blood itself.

Low blood oxygen caused by pneumonia can make the blood more likely to clot, the researchers said.
These clots can cause strokes and heart attacks or can lodge in the lungs or legs. They clog the kidneys and interfere with dialysis treatments needed for the sickest patients.

Damage to the pancreas can worsen diabetes, and patients with diabetes have been shown to be at the highest risk of severe illness and death from coronavirus.

The virus can directly damage the brain, but some of the neurological effects likely come from the treatment. "COVID-19 patients can be intubated for two to three weeks; a quarter require ventilators for 30 or more days," Gupta said.

"These are very prolonged intubations, and patients need a lot of sedation. 'ICU delirium' was a well-known condition before COVID, and the hallucinations may be less an effect of the virus and more an effect of the prolonged sedation."

The virus affects the immune system, depleting the T-cells the body usually deploys to fight off viral infections. "Lymphopenia, a marker of impaired cellular immunity, is a cardinal laboratory finding reported in 67-90% of patients with COVID-19," the researchers wrote.

Doctors need to treat all of these effects when coronavirus patients show up in the hospital, the Columbia team said.

There is some good news.
"Gastrointestinal symptoms may be associated with a longer duration of illness but have not been associated with increased mortality," the researchers wrote. Many of the skin effects, such as rashes and purplish, swollen "Covid toes," also clear up on their own.
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Black nurses say racism in the workplace has gotten worse amid the coronavirus outbreak

Nurse Efe Obiakor stood at the front of the crowd, looking up proudly as her 18-year-old daughter Ada took center stage at a Black Lives Matter rally in central London.

"Let's use this opportunity to have a community heal," Ada told protesters as they poured into a sunny Hyde Park.

Obiakor was there to support her daughter, the lead organizer behind the June 20 anti-racism demonstration, but also to advocate for herself.

"As a Black nurse, it's very important for me to come out today because in the system where I work, and in the NHS as a whole, there is racism," Obiakor explained.

Nurse Efe Obiakor says she has long faced discrimination and harassment in the NHS.

A practice nurse with 12 years' experience, Obiakor, from London, says she has long faced discrimination and harassment in the UK's public health care system, known as the National Health Service (NHS). And she's not alone.

Reporters interviewed a dozen Black nurses across the UK's healthcare sector. From students to medics with decades of experience, they work in different roles and different settings -- hospitals, care homes, and clinics -- up and down the country.

They all say they have experienced racism in the workplace -- and that it has gotten worse amid the coronavirus outbreak.

They told reporters the pressures of the pandemic have exacerbated existing racial inequalities, leaving Black nurses vulnerable to harassment and discrimination.

They say they have been pressured to treat Covid-19 patients without proper personal protective equipment (PPE), to work in the highest-risk areas with larger caseloads, and left too scared to speak out, for fear of reprisals.

Their testimony highlights what they say is a pattern of systemic racism in one of the world's most highly regarded public health care systems.

In response to these 12 testimonies of racism, NHS England said, "Covid-19 has shone a spotlight on stark health inequalities in our country."

The statement added, "Every NHS organization is expected to prioritize and carry out risk assessments for their BAME [Black, Asian, and minority ethnic] staff and other vulnerable groups as a matter of urgency, but in addition do everything possible to eliminate discrimination, and ensure the right processes are in place to address it swiftly and effectively."

The organization did not respond to allegations of PPE shortages.

'It's us again!'
Obiakor says she doesn't trust the system to hear black nurses and correct discrimination.

"What it means daily is: I am not treated fairly," she told a reporter. "I don't have a voice. Nobody is ready to listen to me. I might be screaming, they know I am screaming, but they are not ready to take action. That's how it feels as a Black nurse."

When seriously ill coronavirus patients began flooding UK hospitals as the pandemic took hold in mid-March, Obiakor says she knew who would bear the brunt of the burden.

"We are used to the Blacks being on the front line, so when we came in all we said is: 'It's us again!'" she said with an ironic laugh. "We were not surprised."

Carol Cooper, who is the manager of Equality, Diversity and Human Rights at an NHS Trust in England, has been attending listening sessions on race and equality in the wake of the public health crisis sparked by coronavirus.

She says it was inevitable that Black nurses would find themselves on the front lines of the fight against Covid-19.

"This is indicative of a larger trend," said Cooper, when the media shared its findings with her. "These are not random voices. These are the experiences being echoed all over the country.

"We are the faceless people in the back, but our talents never bring us to the upper echelons. That needs to stop," she said. "There needs to be a very honest reckoning in the NHS."

One in five of all nurses across England are from Black or minority ethnic backgrounds, but about 95% of executive directors of nursing are white, according to a 2019 report from NHS England.
For 42-year-old community nurse Monifa Thompson, the reckoning can't come soon enough.

Thompson has spent much of the pandemic treating patients with suspected and confirmed cases of coronavirus in their homes, sometimes without getting proper PPE from her employer.

"I find racism is at the forefront of everything," she said. "We are pressured to see a huge number of patients -- I can see 21 in a day.

"You feel there is nothing you can change within this system," she explained. "If you say something, you are labeled as 'that nurse that's lazy.'"

Back in London's Hyde Park, Obiakor says she feels she's been fighting two battles at once: Racism and coronavirus. She says she is more determined than ever to emerge victorious -- on both fronts.

"If I know when I speak that there is going to be a change, I will speak every day," she said. "I will bring the facts. I will bring the figures. I will bring witnesses.

"We want the NHS to be a place where everyone comes in and they feel at home. They are not bothered about how my manager is speaking to me, or what's going to happen tomorrow, no," she added.

"It will be a beautiful place to work."
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Hushpuppi's lawyer says FBI 'kidnapped' Nigerian Instagrammer from Dubai

A Nigerian man accused of a multimillion-dollar fraud and money laundering by the United States was kidnapped by the FBI from Dubai, his lawyer says.

Ramon Olorunwa Abbas - known to his 2.5 million Instagram followers as Ray Hushpuppi - and another cyber-heist suspect Olalekan Jacob Ponle (aka Mr Woodberry) was arrested in Dubai, where they lived, in June.

They then appeared in a Chicago court on 3 July.

The United Arab Emirates has no extradition treaty with the United States but Dubai police said they had been extradited to the US.

A spokesman for the US Department of Justice told the media that Hushpuppi was expelled from Dubai and was not extradited. He did not answer how he ended up in US custody.


What does Hushpuppi's lawyer say?
Mr. Abbas' lawyer Gal Pissetzky told reporters that his client, who posts on Instagram about his extravagant lifestyle, was not a criminal and had made his money legitimately.

"He is a social media influencer with millions of followers, with millions of people that respect and loved him, and he loved them, and that's what he did. In today's society, that's a business," he said.

Mr Pissetzky admits that he is not "100% familiar" with social media and his children consider him too old but he knows "that's how people make money today".

The Chicago defence lawyer's argument that Hushpuppi was paid by designer brands for promotion has set the stage for what promises to be a long trial in American courts.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) accuses Mr. Abbas, 37, of conspiring to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from frauds known as Business Email Compromise (BEC) and other scams.


Did the US act legally?
It is the latest high-profile fraud case involving a Nigerian national in the United States but his lawyer says the US had no authority to transport him from Dubai.

"In my opinion, the FBI and the government here acted illegally when they kidnapped him from Dubai without any legal process to do so," Mr. Pissetzky told the media.

"There was no extradition, there were no legal steps taken, there were no court documents filed, it was simply a call to the FBI. He is not a citizen of the United States, the US had absolutely no authority to take him," his lawyer says.

But the Dubai police said in a Facebook post that the FBI director had thanked them for extraditing the two men.

"You'll have to ask them about why they called it extradition," the US Department of Justice (DoJ) spokesman responded in an email.

In a statement about Mr. Abbas' initial court appearance, the DoJ said "FBI special agents earlier this week obtained custody of Abbas and brought him to the United States" without giving any further details.

Mr Pissetzky is not convinced.

"If Dubai wanted to expel him, they should have expelled him back to Nigeria. I've never heard of anything like that. That is the real story here."


What is he accused of?
Ray Hushpuppi was already popular on Instagram for his luxurious lifestyle documented exhaustively on his page but he has gained another 100,000 followers since his dramatic arrest.



At the time, Dubai police said they recovered $40m (£32m) in cash, 13 luxury cars worth $6.8m, 21 computers, 47 smartphones, and the addresses of nearly two million alleged victims.

A complaint against him filed in court accuses Mr Abbas of leading a transnational network of cybercriminals whose targets included a US law firm, a foreign bank, and an English Premier League football club.

Email scams typically try to steal an individual's personal information or to defraud them by impersonating a legitimate business contact and tricking the target into sending money into a wrong account.

They're sometimes called 419 scams, after the relevant article in the Nigerian Criminal Code.



How a 419 and romance scam works
An individual may contact you via e-mail, explaining he needs help to transfer money

Will tell you that political turmoil or a natural disaster makes it difficult for him to make the transfer

Will ask you to give him your financial details so that he can transfer the money into your account

This allows him to access and steal from your account

Be careful what you post on social media and dating sites as scammers use the details to better understand you and target you.

The affidavit claims that Mr. Abbas conspired to launder $14.7m (£11.7m) stolen in a cyber-heist from a foreign financial institution in February 2019.

It did not name the institution by name but a bank in Malta reported losing the same sum to hackers that same month.

The bank did not respond to a request for comment.

The FBI says $1.7bn was lost by individuals and companies in business email compromise scams in 2019 alone.

"This case targets a key player in a large, transnational conspiracy who was living an opulent lifestyle in another country while allegedly providing safe havens for stolen money around the world," United States Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement when the charges were announced.

But Hushpuppi's lawyer says his client earned his money by monetising his large social media presence. He refused to discuss how he was getting paid for legal fees or the source of Hushpuppi's money.

Mr. Pissetzky says the case could last several months, even longer than a year.


What about 'Mr. Woodberry'?
Mr. Ponle, the other Nigerian arrested in Dubai and currently in custody in the United States, is also preparing for trial.

His lawyer Michael B Nash told the judge at a detention hearing on Thursday that he had not had a chance to speak to his client. When he was allowed 15 minutes in a virtual breakout room to confer with Mr Ponle, he returned to request a new date for the hearing.

"I really don't have any comment right now, I have to learn the facts about this case," he told the media.

Mr. Ponle, 29, ran the "Mr. Woodberry" Instagram account but the FBI says he used the alias "Mark Kain" in emails. He is facing charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The complaint against him says one Chicago-based company "was defrauded into sending wire transfers totaling $15.2m". He is accused of converting some of the proceeds into a Bitcoin digital wallet, effectively ensuring that they could not be traced.

"Mr. Ponle, are you there?" a court deputy asked on Thursday when he dialled into the hearing from federal prison.

"Yes, please," he replied, subdued. He did not speak again.
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COVID-19: WHO Launches Probe Into Response To Pandemic

The World Health Organization, which has faced criticism over its early handling of the coronavirus crisis, on Thursday launched an independent review into the global response to the pandemic.

Announcing the assessment, which will be presented next May, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it should help the world understand how to prevent such crises in the future.

The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response will be headed by former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark and former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

“Through you, the world will understand the truth of what happened and also the solutions to build our future better as one humanity,” Tedros said at the UN agency’s headquarters in Geneva.

At their last assembly in May, WHO member states agreed to a resolution tabled by the European Union, which called for an “impartial, independent, and comprehensive evaluation… to review experience gained and lessons learned from the WHO-coordinated international health response to COVID-19”.

It said the investigation should probe “the actions of WHO and their timelines pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic”.

At the time, the WHO was coming under attack from US President Donald Trump, who threatened to withdraw Washington’s membership, accusing the agency of botching its handling of the pandemic and of being a “puppet of China”.

The United States on Tuesday formally started its withdrawal from the WHO, making good on Trump’s threats to deprive the UN body of its top donor.

Public health advocates and Trump’s political opponents voiced outrage at the move.


– ‘This has to stop’ –
Tedros hit out at divisions in the international community, warning of the consequences.

“Make no mistake: the greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself — rather, its the lack of leadership and solidarity at the global and national levels,” he said.

“We cannot defeat this pandemic as a divided world. The virus thrives on division but is thwarted when we unite.”

The new coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 550,000 lives worldwide, with nearly 12.1 million people infected since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to an AFP tally on Thursday.

“How is it difficult for humans to unite to fight a common enemy that’s killing people indiscriminately? Tedros said.

“Together is the solution, unless we want to give the advantage the enemy, to the virus that has taken the world hostage — and this has to stop.”


– Look in the mirror –
Tedros said it was time for honest reflection, and stressed it was important to remain vigilant.

“All of us must look in the mirror: WHO, every member state, all involved in the response. Everyone,” he said.

“We’re in the midst of this battle. The battle of our lives and we have to do better, not just now but for the future. Because these threats will never stop and, in all likelihood, they will get worse.”

Clark and Sirleaf will pick their own panel members and will have their own secretariat.

The panel will stage a monthly mission briefing to give updates on progress.

It will present an interim report to the next World Health Assembly gathering in November, with its full report to follow at the May 2021 WHA.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Sirleaf said: “I look forward to doing all we can to respond to these challenges that have prevented us from being united in moving forward, not only to address the effects of COVID-19 but to ensure a better health system for all nations.”

Clark added: “This assignment could only be described as exceptionally challenging.”
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Teens discover bodies in bags while filming TikTok videos in Seattle

Seattle authorities have identified the remains of two people who were discovered by teens shooting TikTok videos last month.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAziGtqpvqo

The two victims, Jessica Lewis, 35, and Austin Wenner, 27, were shot days earlier, according to the King County Medical Examiner's Office. A family member said the two had dated for years.

About a week later, the teens found the bodies stuffed in bags on a beach in West Seattle and immediately called 911 -- then posted the video the next day.

Authorities responded to the scene after receiving the call of a suspicious bag on the beach. A second bag was located in the water, the Seattle Police Department said in a statement.

Seattle Police Detective Mark Jamieson confirmed that the TikTok video wasn't posted until the next day.
"We're glad the video is out there. We spoke to the people involved and they corroborated some of the information," Jamieson said. "The kids found a bag on the beach, it smelled, they called 911. ...

Officers got out there in about an hour and a half, and then officers did further investigation and then discovered that it probably remained and called the detectives and the Medical Examiner's Office."

Lewis was a mother of four and she'd dated Wenner for eight years, her aunt, Gina Jaschke told the affiliate.

"They were just nice normal people," she said. "Nobody deserves what happened to them."
She implored anyone with information to come forward.
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