Chelsea Clinton gives birth to daughter
NEW YORK: Chelsea Clinton announced on Saturday the birth of her first-born child, daughter Charlotte, in comments promptly retweeted by her parents and fellow White House occupants.
“Marc and I are full of love, awe and gratitude as we celebrate the birth of our daughter, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky,” Chelsea Clinton wrote on Facebook.
The message was also posted on Twitter. The former first daughter, 34, frequently tipped to follow her parents into politics, left her position as NBC special correspondent in August to focus on her pregnancy and the birth of her daughter.
Her husband Marc Mezvinsky is an investment banker. Clinton began work as a special correspondent with NBC in 2011. Reports of her $600,000 salary sparked a backlash earlier this year, fueling complaints that it was inflated and unfair.
Educated at Stanford, Columbia and Oxford Universities, she runs the Clinton Foundation with her parents Bill and Hillary. Her mother Hillary is widely anticipated to launch a second bid to become the first woman president of the United States by contesting the 2016 Democrat nomination for the White House.
Her father Bill served as the 42nd US president, from January 1993 to January 2001. (AFP)
Three mass grave sites found in Ukraine
Kiev:Ukrainian authorities have uncovered three mass grave sites in the eastern city of Slaviansk, which had been under the control of independence-seeking pro-Russian militia, officials said.
“We located three mass graves. Bodies have been exhumed and sent to coroners for autopsy and identifying the cause of death,” Andrei Lysenko, a spokesman for the National Security and Defence Council, told reporters Friday.
The spokesman added that a preliminary examination of the bodies suggests that those found in the sites might have died in the early summer months, when the city was under the separatists’ control.
Pro-Russian separatist forces reported earlier this week that several mass grave sites containing the remains of civilians have been found with indications they were shot execution-style in the back of the head. The Russian foreign ministry lost no time in denouncing the alleged massacres and called on the international community to open a rigorous investigation to clarify the circumstances under which the victims met their deaths. (IANS)
Brazil rapist gets 106 years prison term
Rio de Janeiro: A court in the northeastern Brazilian state of Paraiba has sentenced to 106 years in prison the ringleader of a group of youth who raped five women at a party and killed two of them.
Eduardo dos Santos Pereira, the last of the seven defendants to be tried, was considered the chief promoter of the gang rape and two murders perpetrated in 2012 in the town of Queimada.
The sentence was handed down Friday by Judge Antonio Maroja Limeira Filho after a 19-hour trial.
Santos Pereira, who planned the crimes, was found guilty of double homicide, five rapes, criminal conspiracy, corruption of minors, bearing arms illegally and battery.
The other six accused have been sentenced to between 26 and 44 years in jail, while the three minors who were part of the group of rapists must submit to disciplinary measures. The gang rape and murders occurred Feb 12, 2012, while the victims were attending a birthday party organised by Santos Pereira at his home.
The others at the party were friends of the organiser and knew of Santos Pereira’s plans to rape the female guests. A group of hooded men invaded the home where the birthday party was being held and shut the women in a bedroom where they were raped, while the men were supposedly tied up elsewhere in the house.
Teacher Isabela Frazao Monteiro, 27, and receptionist Michelle Domingues da Silva, 29, were killed when they discovered that the hooded rapists were none other than the guests at the party. (IANS)
Three 9/11 firefighters die of cancer in one day
NEW YORK: Three New York firefighters who worked at the World Trade Center ruins after the September 11 attacks died within hours of each other from cancer, fire officials said on Thursday.
Howard Bischoff and Daniel Heglund were 58, while the third firefighter, Robert Leaver, was 56.
All three men, who died on Monday, had been retired since 2003.
“Losing three firefighters on the same day to WTC-related illnesses is a painful reminder that, 13 years later, we continue to pay a terrible price for the department’s heroic efforts on September 11,” fire commissioner Daniel Nigro said. Their deaths bring the number of rescue workers who have perished from September 11-related illnesses to 92. Tens of thousands of people, mainly emergency workers, have contracted respiratory, skin and other ailments after being exposed to toxins at Ground Zero. (Agencies)