Dozens of Australians Lift Train to Free Man Whose Leg Was Trapped

Dozens of Australians tilted a train Wednesday to free a whose leg was trapped between a carriage and a platform, with authorities praising their efforts as an example of “people power”.

The man was boarding in the Western Australia city of Perth when he slipped and became jammed in the five-centimetre (0.4-inch) gap between the carriage and the station, operator Transperth said in a statement.

Passengers were initially told to move to the opposite side of the train in the hope their weight would shift it away from his leg, a passenger who gave his name as Nic told The West Australian newspaper.

But when that failed, staff told commuters to get off the train and about 50 of them lined up in a row along the platform to tilt the carriage away from the man so he could be lifted out.

“It is the first time we’ve seen something like this happen,” Transperth spokeswoman Claire Krol told AFP.

“We were really fortunate that the staff were there straight away… and all of the passengers not only listened to the instructions from staff, but pitched in and helped.

“This is a real case of passengers of working together… and people power are the perfect words to describe it.”

Transperth said the man was treated by paramedics but was able to catch a later train.

“The end result here is: really lucky for the man involved, but really nice as well to see that everyone came together as a community,” Krol added.

EBOLA: Nurse Who Treated Sawyer Dies, 5 More Cases Confirmed

One of the nurses who attended Patrick Sawyer, the first Ebola victim in Nigeria, has died.

Health Minister Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu made this known in Abuja August 6, Punch reports. He also revealed that 5 other medical practitioners involved in treatment contracted the virus.

“Nigeria has now recorded seven confirmed cases of Ebola Virus Disease. The first one was the index case, which is the imported case from Liberia of which the victim is now late. Yesterday, 5th August, 2014, the first known Nigerian to die of the EVD was recorded and this was one of the nurses that attended to the Liberian. The other five cases are currently being treated at the Isolation Ward in Lagos.”

Sawyer, a US citizen was travelling from Liberia, the center of Ebola epidemic, to Nigeria and was admitted to a Lagos hospital where he died from the symptoms of the deadly disease last month.

Two days ago the case of infection was confirmed by the Nigerian officials: the health worker contracted  the disease while treating Sawyer.

Since February the deadly virus has claimed more than 700 lives in West Africa, mostly Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, and keeps spreading in the continent.

Brutus the giant crocodile attacks shark in Australia

(AFP)Tourists in northern Australia have been left stunned by two fierce animals going head-to-head — a massive saltwater crocodile wrestling with a bull shark in its jaws.

Andrew Paice was on an hour-long wildlife cruise on the Adelaide River with his partner and seven-year-old daughter on Tuesday when they spotted something unusual on the riverbank.

Earlier they had watched as crocodiles, including the huge 5.5-metre (18-feet) male known as Brutus, leapt out of the water to eat a piece of buffalo meat held out on a pole to them.

“It was on the way back to the jetty, we went past Brutus again, he was up on the bank,” Paice told AFP from Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory on Wednesday.

“As we were going past, we noticed that there was a fin. We thought it was a barramundi (fish) or something.

“And the guide took the boat in for a closer look and lo’ and behold… it was a shark.”

Brutus, who is thought to be about 80 years old and is missing a front leg and most of his teeth, is well known in the area, and the Northern Territory News described the battle as “Jaws v Claws”.

Speculation is that the prospect of a fish dinner was tasty revenge for a croc that was thought to have lost his limb to one of the sharks who inhabit nearby waters.

“But from listening to other people, it was probably more likely a big crocodile (which took his front leg). But who knows? It was either a crocodile or a shark,” Paice said

Pandemonium as rival youth groups clash in Imo

There was pandemonium at the Umuapu Junction on the Owerri-Port Harcourt road on Tuesday following a clash between the youths of Umuapu community and their counterparts from Obitti.

An eyewitness also told newsmen that three persons were feared dead while many were injured in the bloody clash in the Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area in Imo.

Among those who allegedly lost their lives were two youths from Umuapu and one from Obitti, according to an eyewitness.

Trouble was said to have started when youths of Obitti allegedly gathered at Umuapu Junction to dismantle the road block mounted by the youths of Umuapu to stop traders from accessing the popular Orie Obitti Market.

According to the eyewitness, the youths of the two communities had been at daggers drawn until it eventually snowballed into the bloody clash.

It was gathered that youths of Umuapu had insisted that commercial motorcyclists from Obitti who operate their business at Umuapu Junction pay some money known as ‘marching ground’ to be allowed to operate.

The Obitti youths, on the other hand, refused to yield to the demand, leading to a strained relationship between the neighbouring communities.

When contacted, the Imo Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Andrew Enwerem, confirmed the report but said he had no knowledge of any loss of lives.

Enwerem, however, said the police had restored calm in the area.

He assured the people that the police would commence investigation into the clash, saying that no arrests had been made.

The traditional ruler of Obitti Autonomous Community, Eze Clifford Chibuzor, also confirmed the clash.

He said he had earlier warned his youths to resist the temptation of confronting their Umuapu neighbours in spite of recurrent provocations.

Chibuzor said he had sent emissaries to the traditional ruler of Umuapu, Eze Boniface Ihueze, with a view to finding a lasting and amicable solution to the conflict.

Where Miracles Happen: Haitian Voodoo In Saut D’ Eau Waterfalls (18+) [Photos]

Every year in summer thousands of pilgrims from all over Haiti make a religious journey to the village of Ville Bonheur and the sacred Waters of Saut d’Eau waterfall, located near Mirebalais and 60 miles north of Port au Prince, a main pilgrimage site in Haiti since 1847.
It is believed that 150 years ago, Erzulie the goddess of love and beauty, camouflaged in the spirit of Virgin Mary of miracles has appeared on a palm tree close to the waterfall, a French priest, afraid of the superstition this would inspire, cut the tree down, but it nonetheless became an important religious destination for Haitians.
The sick and the needy let the water of the falls wash over them as they perform various rituals of Voodoo in a religious festival that lasts for three days.
Haitians wearing only underwear perform a bathing and cleaning ritual under the waterfall and Voodoo followers get possessed by the spirit of water.
Believers spend hours under the sound and the coolness of the water, praying, hugging. Many throw their old clothes to the sky, a symbol of a past they want to leave behind.

And some hougan consult the (priests) or the mambo (priestess) possessed by loas (voodoo deities).
Beneath the waterspout is impossible to hear a word, the devotees dance, make ablutions with their bottles and bowls of pumpkin and delivered to communion with saints ‘praise’.

20 things you don’t know about the late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa

He is famously known as the ‘Socrates of the Supreme Court’, and indeed, he demonstrated this as the head of the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission, popular called Oputa Panel. Below are 20 things you may not know about the late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa.

1. He was born to Chief Oputa Nzukwu and Mrs. Nwametu Oputa on September 22, 1924.

2. His father died when he was about three months old while his mother died just about the time he turned six months.

3. He was brought up by his grandmother, Ogonim Enesha, a trader with the Royal Niger Company.

4. Growing up, he was fondly referred to as Sylvester, and attended the Sacred Heart School, Oguta, from 1930 to 1936, and Christ the King’s College, Onitsha, from 1937 to 1940.

5. Though he got admission to the Higher College, Lagos, he had to move to the famous Achimota College, in the then Gold Coast (now Ghana), where he obtained a Bachelors degree in Economics in 1945.

6. During the Second World War, Oputa, while a student at Achimota, was drafted into the army, during which he joined others to establish the Achimota Home Generals.

7. He studied at home to obtain his Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of London.

8. On return from Ghana, he became a teacher at the African College (now in Rivers State), where the likes of Prof. Chike Obi, famous mathematician, and Dr. Pius Okigbo also taught.

9. He was once a principal at the Kalabari National College, Buguma, and one of his students was Prof. Tam David West, a former petroleum minister.

10. Oputa read Law in England and by June 1953 he received his LL.B (Hons) degree.

11. He was called to the English Bar-Grays Inn, London, on November 26, 1953.

12. He returned to Nigeria in 1954 and appeared in virtually all the magistrate and high courts of the then Eastern Region of Nigeria, the West African Court of Appeal, the Federal Supreme Court, the Supreme Court, and the court in the Region of Cameroon.

13. Oputa was the lead counsel in the Harcourt Commission of inquiry into the Oguta Chieftaincy dispute between 1958 and 1959. He was also the leading counsel in the Ukelonu Inquiry into the Nembe Amayangbo Dispute (1959/1960), as well as the leading counsel in the Harding Commission of Inquiry into the Onitsha Obaship dispute between 1960 and 1961.

14. In 1976, he was appointed the first Chief Judge of Imo State, a position he held till July 2, 1984.

15. He was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria after his tenure as the CJ of Imo State.

16. He established his Justice Oputa Foundation on October 2, 2010. The foundation according to him was an initiative, which “operates with deep understanding that it is virtually impossible to address the malaise bedeviling the continent without sound, people-oriented governance constructed on sustainable developmental modem.”

17. He was a staunch Catholic and social crusader for justice, a prominent member of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Oguta. He’s a Knight of St. Sylvester.

18. Oputa owned a Limousine-1950 model, which afterwards was used for ceremonial events.

19. His wife, Margaret, 92, was a nurse.

20. Oputa lost two of his children- his first child, Michael, sometimes in 2003; and his only daughter same year. She died during childbirth.

See How Much Gov Shettima Will Spend On The 53 Escaped Chibok Schoolgirls

The abduction of the over 200 students from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state by the Boko haram sect on April 14 has been a matter of serious concern both locally and internationally.

The Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, has said N150 million have been set aside to take care of the 53 Chibok schoolgirls, who escaped from the den of the Boko Haram terrorists.

The governor made this development known while addressing the presidential fact-finding committee in Chibok said: “The Borno State government has set aside the sum of N150 million to fund a rehabilitation programme of the 53 girls and to support parents in Chibok, whose sources of livelihood have been truncated by the trauma, leaving them with little or nothing to feed on, while we continue to work immeasurably towards the release of the girls being held.”

Governor Shettima who is very optimistic that the others will be freed also said that his government is already in touch with key international organisations and a plan of action has already been proposed by the Ministry of Health in the State on issues relating to the health and well-being of the 53 girls who escaped.