Mickeys

A student in China has confessed to stabbing to death a room-mate because of his snoring.

Snorer was stabbed in the chest and back in the middle of the night

“I told Zhao about it and he became angry. He verbally abused me several times, prompting me to kill him,” 23-year-old Guo Liwei was quoted as saying.

Zhao Yan, 22, was stabbed in the chest and back in the middle of the night.

The pair shared accommodation at Jilin agricultural university in the north-eastern province of Jilin, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Guo had previously complained to Zhao about his snoring and posted video of him snoring on a university website, which created more tension between the two, Xinhua reported.

Guo is currently awaiting sentencing by the Changchun Intermediate People’s Court.

Violent crimes have been on the rise in China, especially as the country’s rapid economic development has created a growing rich-poor gap.

story from SkyNews

Le Havre, France – Three sailors have died of food poisoning on an oil tanker traversing the Channel between Britain and Europe, maritime authorities said, quoting the captain of the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel.

The captain of the Arionas reported the deaths overnight, French officials said, adding that the source of the food poisoning was not known.

The vessel was going from Cyprus to the Dutch port of Rotterdam.

taken from News24

Manie Potgieter from Lydenburg, who allegedly shot and killed Litasha van der Walt and wounded his wife, Daleen in a shooting incident on Saturday night, wrote a letter in which he accused his wife of having an extra-marital affair.

“Lord forgive me!” were the opening words of the letter.

Family friends of the Potgieters told Beeld on Tuesday that he was so jealous of his wife that he kept track of her from Iraq by means of a web camera. He was doing maintenance work in Iraq.

“She had to be home at a certain time every day and switch on the computer so he could watch her. There would be hell to pay if she was late,” said a good friend.

Potgieter, 51, reportedly walked into the Trout Inn restaurant in Lydenburg on Saturday night with a .32 revolver and first shot his 37-year-old wife, wounding her, and then shot and killed Van der Walt, 25.

This happened during the 18th birthday party of his stepson, Wimpie.

Potgieter fled after the shooting. He was arrested 24 hours later at a guesthouse outside White River.

According to the investigating officer, Thomas Motau, the letter clearly shows that Potgieter was extremely jealous of his wife.

In the letter he also accuses her of having a lesbian affair.

The murder weapon was found near Van der Walt’s body shortly after the murder. It is not registered in Potgieter’s name.

Police have since seized several firearms which were hidden in the roof of Potgieter’s house in Schoeman Street.

A rare Striker shotgun (with a drum magazine which holds 12-gauge shot), a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and a .22 rifle were found, among others. Potgieter only has a licence for the Striker.

They also seized two swords, a hunting knife, a panga and a large amount of ammunition.

Potgieter told police that he had served as a mercenary in Iraq, but Beeld has established that he was working as a maintenance technician for an international company, RMS, in 2007.

He did maintenance work on buildings in the city of Tadji, where there is a large American military base. He was also responsible for the maintenance of the base’s electricity network and generators.

Daleen Potgieter is still being treated in the Eugène Marais hospital in Pretoria. Her condition is stable.

Her husband appeared briefly in court in Lydenburg on Tuesday. He will appear again on Wednesday and remains behind bars.

taken from News24

He loved him and was a big fan of his music, but now this musician had robbed them of their little boy, said a grieving Joyce Ntoga, aunt of Prince Mahube, 17, outside the Kliptown mortuary in Soweto, moments after she and other family members identified Prince’s body.

Phumelelo Masemelo's mother, Mameetse, lies in bed with a photograph of her son next to her.

Prince, Phumelelo Masemelo, 16, Mlugisi Cwayi, 17, and Andile Mthombeni, 19, died on Monday after musician Molemo Maarohanye, better known as Jub Jub and his friend Themba Tshabalala, drove their two Mini Coopers into the group of children.

The four friends died on the scene while two other schoolchildren, Fumani Mushanana, 17, and Frank Mlabo, 18, were seriously injured and taken to Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital.

One of the boys is currently in a coma.

Maarohanye – who had also been a contestant in Survivor SA: Santa Carolina – and Tshabalala were apparently drag racing when the accident happened.

Blood samples were taken to determine whether the men had used drugs.

Police were still waiting for the lab results, said police spokesperson Inspector Kay Makhubela.

According to metro police spokesperson inspector Edna Mamonyane, breathalyser tests showed that Tshabalala’s blood alcohol levels were twice over the legal limit and Maarohanye’s was under the legal limit.

Family, friends and bystanders reacted with shock and anger on Wednesday.

“He was such a clever boy and wanted to become an architect.”

“He always told his mother: ‘Give me only two years and I will change this little house of yours. Jub Jub robbed us of him and he loved Jub Jub so much,” said Ntoga.

Prince’s mother, Janette Mahube, was too shocked to talk to the media.

(continue reading…)

At least 11 people have been killed and more than 60 injured – including women and children on their way to school – in a suicide car bombing in Pakistan.

The target was a police building in the eastern city of Lahore where “important” suspects are interrogated.

No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the blast, although it is thought to have been the work of the Taliban or an allied miltant group.

More than 600 people have died in a wave of terrorist attacks in Pakistan that began last October.

The latest attack comes amid reports of a crackdown on the Taliban and al Qaeda in the country.

TV footage showed a huge crater in front of the police building where the bomb went off.

“This place was used to interrogate important suspects. Presently there was none such suspect, but more then 40 staff were manning the place,” said Lahore police chief Pervez Rathore.

Noorul Huda, a student at a nearby religious school who suffered a head wound in the explosion, told reporters: “Blocks and pieces of the roof fell upon us and six of us were injured.

“It was total chaos outside and people were running and crying for help.”

A Lahore government official said 11 people had died and a number of those injured were in critical condition.

A hospital spokesman said the dead included at least one woman and a young girl, apparently part of a group heading to a school.

“People are coming with multiple wounds, many with head injuries and broken limbs,” he said.

Other nearby buildings, including a mosque, also were damaged by the blast.

story from SkyNews

A 58-year-old woman was shot dead in front of her 14-year-old daughter at Lujecweni village in Tsolo, Eastern Cape police said on Monday.

Superintendent Mzukisi Fatyela said the woman was at home at around 21:30 on Sunday when an unidentified man kicked the door open and fired a gun.

“He did not say anything before firing the two shots, and after that he fled the scene.”

Fatyela said police did not know the motive. They found cartridges of a 9mm pistol on the scene.

The girl was unharmed.

Police were investigating a case of murder and had not yet arrested anybody.

taken from News24

Baby Ashleigh Louw died on Friday, Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital clinical manager Dr Pungie Lingham said.

“Sadly, she has passed on,” he said. “Our condolences go out to the family.”

He said she died around midday but could not reveal the cause of death for privacy reasons.

“Baby Ashleigh was very ill and she’s been in ICU [intensive care unit] under very intense management both medically and otherwise,” said Lingham.

Ashleigh had an operation on January 17 after being born on January 9 with her heart outside her chest, covered only by a thin layer of skin.

The condition is known as Pentallogy of Cantrell which occurs in one in a million babies.

taken from News24

Two children died and 85 people were hurt – eight of them seriously -when a goods truck ploughed into a busload of schoolchildren in Polokwane on Friday morning, said police and paramedics.

The truck driver told police the vehicle’s brakes failed after he exited the N1 highway outside Polokwane, said Superintendent Moatshe Ngoepe.

He hooted to warn motorists at the intersection of Church street and the Tzaneen bypass.

The truck hit a panel van, then a minibus, then a bus, which overturned onto an Opel Corsa, said Ngoepe.

He said there were 70 children on the bus and more in the minibus. All were pupils at the nearby Dihlathaneng Primary School and had been on a school educational tour.

Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said five children were trapped in the minibus. The jaws-of-life were used to extricate them. Two of them died. Both were 10 years old.

All the patients were stabilised in a disaster treatment centre set up on the scene before being taken to various hospitals in the area, he said.

Ngoepe said no arrests had been made. People were investigating a culpable homicide.

taken from News24

The mother of murdered toddler James Bulger says Jon Venables is “back where he belongs” after the killer was returned to jail.

James Bulger was snatched from a Liverpool shopping centre

Denise Fergus posted her reaction on Twitter saying she “would like to let everyone know Jon Venables is were he belongs tonight behind bars is this my sons justice (sic)”.

Mrs Fergus’s reaction came as the detective who led the murder probe urged authorities to reveal why Venables, now 27, was back in jail.

Former Detective Superintendent Albert Kirby told Sky News: “I think it would help to clarify things and put this to rest once and for all if the public had some indication what he did.

“I’m not talking about where he is or details like that but the reason why his parole has been revoked and why he’s back inside.”

The Ministry of Justice confirmed Venables has been returned to an unnamed jail for breaching the strict terms of his release.

Family members said Mrs Fergus remains unaware of the nature of Venables’ breach. The precise details were not given by the MoJ.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw said it was not in the “public interest” to release more details.

Mr Kirby said Mrs Fergus was suffering renewed anxiety over the news and was “very upset”.

His comments were echoed by Mrs Fergus’s husband Stuart on Twitter. He said: “Thinking when will this all end for my wife.”

Venables was just 10 when he and Robert Thompson abducted and battered the two year old to death in a crime which shocked the world.

He was released on a life licence in 2001 but was recalled to custody last week after the breach.

(continue reading…)

A 4-year-old girl and her 18-month-old brother drowned in Florida, Roodepoort, on Sunday morning, as she was presumably trying to save him.

Pool safety

The boy was first to fall into the swimming pool and his sister apparently also fell in when she tried to pull him out.

The children’s mother was visiting a tenant on the property. The swimming pool was not fenced in or covered.

Johannesburg emergency services spokesperson Nana Radebe said it was not clear what had happened exactly and the mother was too traumatised to provide details.

“We tried to revive the children but they were declared dead on the scene.”

Radebe pleaded with people to cover and fence their pools and also to keep the gate locked.

When Beeld arrived at the house on Sunday afternoon, only the owner of the house was at home. Ameenah Thomas, 34, said she was not at home when the children drowned.

“We came back from Cape Town and saw all the emergency services vehicles standing here. I at first thought there had been a burglary,” she said.

The bodies of the children were already in body bags when Thomas arrived. “The mother was devastated,” she said.

“The tenant’s husband said he heard screaming. One of the children was floating in the swimming pool. They pulled out the child and the neighbours helped to pull out the other one,” said Thomas.

taken from News24

Mossel Bay – The owner of a Mossel Bay surfing school has described how he and two other surfers rushed into the sea to help three boys and a man who were in trouble in the sea at Diaz Beach on Saturday.

“We aren’t heroes,” said Llewellyn Whittaker, about himself and two other surfers, Michael Sheppard and Heinrich Engelbrecht.

Another two boys drowned in the incident. Only one of the two boys has been identified. He is 11-year-old Nkululeko Xaka from Kwanonqaba, according to Bernadine Steyn, Southern Cape police spokesperson.

At about 13:45 on Saturday, a group of boys went swimming at the beach. Whittaker described how he had started a surfing lesson on Saturday shortly after a development competition for juniors had finished at Diaz beach.

“I had barely started explaining to my student – a medical doctor whom I only know as Janine – how sea currents work, when I first spotted three people in the waves. It looked like they were in trouble.”

Whittaker dashed into the sea with the surfboard he was using for the lesson.

Initially he only saw a man and two boys in the ocean.

He pulled the man onto his surfboard and swam to the beach with one of the boys. “The boy wasn’t breathing.”

According to him, an unknown youth tried to pull another boy from the water, but the victim kept pulling the youth under.

“It was very bad – the youth (who tried to save the boy) was yelling ‘I can’t go on, I can’t go on’.”

Sheppard rushed into the surf after he heard Whittaker whistling and saw him waving his arms. He and Engelbrecht brought two more boys, who were lying face down in the water by that time, to the beach.

Steyn confirmed on Sunday that two boys (one who went swimming and one who presumably tried to save him) were still in hospital.

According to the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), the adult man was also taken to hospital. His condition was stable.

taken from News24

Hartbeespoort – A “crazy” man destroyed a young woman’s “life’s dream” on Monday when he shot her Siberian husky in the head.

Twenty-year-old Allecia Eastes’ fiancé, David Alkers, gave her the ten-month-old husky about eight months ago.

“All my life I’ve dreamed of having a husky.”

The couple moved into a flat on a smallholding at Bokfontein, between Mooinooi and Hartbeespoort, about three weeks ago. There are also six cottages and the owner’s house on the smallholding.

Eastes, who is 11 weeks pregnant, was sleeping when the man started shooting at her dogs with a revolver at about 11:30.

“Workers had put up a fence around the property. There’s a small fenced-off area behind the flat where Montego [the husky] and Kiara, a pit bull cross, were enclosed and from which they escaped. Mini-Me [the Daschund] was inside the house.”

“According to the workers the man first started shooting at the dogs near one of the cottages.”

“They [the dogs] ran home and apparently he walked over here, called Montego to the fence and shot him in the head. I was woken up by the shot.”

“Then he came into the fenced-off area, threw Montego over the fence so that it would look as if he’d been shot outside the yard, and with the revolver still in his hand, he started rattling at our flat’s doors.”

According to him, the dog had caught and eaten one of his parrots, but apparently there’s no sign of that.

Eastes had never met the man, so it was quite traumatic for her when a strange man with a revolver started rattling their doors.

Captain Aafje Botma, police spokesperson in the North West, confirmed that a docket was opened in terms of the Animal Protection Act. Further charges could possibly be added.

Apparently the man hasn’t been back to his cottage, so the police haven’t been able to take a statement or inspect his firearm.

taken from News24

Dick Francis, the best-selling novelist and former jockey, has died at the age of 89.

Dick Francis

His son, Felix, said he was “devastated” as he paid tribute to his “extraordinary” father.

Francis, from Oxfordshire, the author of 42 novels, was “rightly acclaimed” as one of the greatest thriller writers in the world, his spokesman said.

Horseracing pundit John McCririck called Dick Francis a “great jockey, “a gentleman” and “the kind of man that everybody in racing liked”.

He told Sky News he would be best remembered for the 1956 Grand National when the Queen Mother’s horse Devon Locke that he was riding collapsed about 50 yards from the winning post.

He said Francis showed “dignity in defeat” and “the way he conducted himself afterwards was absolutely amazing”.

McCririck added: “He was the first of the jockeys to come out and become a writer. His best-selling novels time and again had racing themes that were throughout his career.

Francis rode 2,305 races between 1948 and 1957, winning 345

“He wrote about racing, the sport he loved, that were best-selling year in, year out.”

McCririck went on: “He was a man who enjoyed life, who realised he had a life after racing.”

Francis wrote a volume of short stories, an autobiography and the biography of Lester Piggott.

Even Money, written with Felix, was published in September 2009 and Crossfire, the new Dick and Felix Francis novel, will be published in autumn 2010

Francis was also one of the most successful post-war National Hunt jockeys, winning more than 350 races.

He retired from racing in 1957 and took up writing, first for the Sunday Express and then, in 1962, with the novels.

Francis also had a distinguished military career, serving the RAF in 1940, initially stationed in the Egyptian desert before he was commissioned as a pilot in 1943.

His wife, Mary, to whom he was married for 53 years, died in 2000.

He also had five grandchildren and one great grandson.

There will be a small funeral at his home in Grand Cayman, followed by a memorial service in London in due course, his spokesman said.

taken from SkyNews

Rescue workers walk along the wreckage of two commuter trains in Buizingen, Belgium. At least twenty people were killed in the collision.

Two trains crashed head-on outside of Brussels on Monday, killing at least 20 people, officials and Belgian broadcaster VRT said.

The local trains collided near Halle, some 15 kilometres (9 miles) southwest of Brussels at around 08:30 (07:30 GMT).

VRT said 20 people were killed, but officials from the train line operator were unable to immediately confirm that figure.

Train services, including the high-speed line between Brussels and Paris, were blocked.

taken from News24

A Witbank man was arrested on Saturday afternoon after allegedly beating his dog to death with a spade before burying the carcass in a shallow grave in his front yard.

Jakkie Opperman, 17, lives diagonally across the man’s house in Jackaroo Park, and saw the entire incident.

“It was barbaric,” he said.

“We were sitting in the garden when I heard a loud bang. Then I heard a girl screaming ’stop it’ over and over.

“I jumped up and walked closer.

“The man was busy beating the dog with a spade. Another man just stood there and watched.”

According to Jakkie, the arrested man said: “I should chop his (the dog’s) head off too.”

Jakkie ran home and asked his parents to phone the Witbank branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). Members of the Witbank SPCA called Ian Lombaard, chief inspector at the Middelburg SPCA.

“On my way to the premises I called the police, since I don’t have authorisation to enter someone’s property and act against the accused,” said Lombard.

“When I arrived at the house the police were there.”

The dog (a Boerbull cross) was dug up and the owner was arrested.

The owner is expected to appear in the Witbank Magistrate’s Court on Monday. Charges relating to the Animal Protection Act are being investigation against him.

The reason why the man beat the dog (to death) is reportedly because the animal wanted to bite him.

A post-mortem will be performed on the dog on Monday.

“We ask that people should please not act on their own when a dog behaves aggressively,” said Lombard.

“The SPCA is there to handle such cases.”

taken from News24