35-yr-old S African jailed for 1,535 years for raping 29 women
Johannesburg: A 35-year-old serial rapist has been jailed for 1,535 years by a South African court here for sexually assaulting as many as 29 women over a period of five years, media reports said on Friday.
Albert Morake’s reign of terror in the Tembisa area of Gauteng province began in 2007 and ended with his arrest in 2012. He was sentenced by the Johannesburg High Court yesterday to 1,535 years of imprisonment including 30 life terms for 30 counts of rape, 360 years for robbery and several hundred more for crimes including attempted murder, kidnapping and robbery.
Media said Morake is one of this country’s worst serial rapists and his sentence is one of the most severe. Rape survivors, who attended the quantum of punishment, danced with joy and hugged each other. Morake had pleaded not guilty to 175 charges, including 30 of rape, 41 of kidnapping and 24 of robbery among others. However, he was found guilty on 144 counts.
The sentences will run concurrently. Judge Rean Strydom said Morake had not shown remorse and had persisted in denying his involvement in the crimes. “He had been arrogant in that he provided his victims with advice on how to protect themselves from rape in the future,” the judge was quoted as saying by Times Live.co.za. Strydom said most of Morake’s victims had been traumatised and were emotional when they testified against him. “He had acted with premeditation. He came prepared [to commit the crimes] and was always in control,” said Strydom. (PTI)
Three-year-old freezes to death in Canada
Toronto: A three-year old boy froze to death in Canada after wandering from his home dressed in only a T-shirt, diaper and boots when the temperature outside was -28 degrees Centigrade, authorities said.
The frozen body of the child, named Elijah, was found around 10.30 a.m. Thursday in Toronto, six hours after he sneaked out of his house while his parents were asleep.Police reported that Elijah was found curled up in the backyard of a nearby house.Footage from a security camera at the building where the child lived showed him opening the door at around 4.30 a.m. when the temperature in the streets of Toronto was about -28 degrees Centigrade. At such temperature, human body parts exposed to the outdoors freeze in about 10 minutes.Neither the authorities nor the child’s family have given a reason for Elijah deciding to leave the house at such an early hour.The boy’s family and the Toronto police began a frantic search after he was found missing at around 7.30 a.m.Dozens of policemen and volunteers took part in the search which ended with the child’s body being found, an incident that moved the entire country.”The loss of a child or grandchild is an unimaginable loss. We stand with the entire community in mourning,” said Canada’s Finance Minister Joe Oliver.”Toronto’s thoughts and prayers are with you during this difficult time,” Toronto’s Mayor John Tory wrote on Twitter. (IANS)
US woman to sue herself for negligence that killed husband!
Los Angeles: In a bizarre case, a woman in the US state of Utah has got approval from a court to sue herself for alleged negligence in a 2011 accident that killed her spouse.The Utah Court of Appeals ruled that Barbara Bagley could indeed begin legal proceedings against herself. Bagley wants to charge herself with negligence in a December 2011 car accident that killed her husband. She was driving the vehicle in the Nevada desert at the time when she hit a sagebrush and flipped the Range Rover over. Her husband was thrown from the car and later died from his injuries. Bagley claims she was negligent for not keeping control of her vehicle and for “failing to maintain a proper lookout” while driving, CBS News reported. A state Third District judge dismissed the lawsuit last year, but it was reinstated last week in a unanimous ruling by the Utah Court of Appeals. Bagley’s attorneys say she is advancing this lawsuit for the benefit of her husband’s estate because creditors will have to be paid before the widow can receive any money as her husband’s only heir. But other lawyers are looking to once again dismiss the suit, saying if it is allowed to continue, a jury would then be called upon to figure out if Bagley’s negligence caused her own trauma. “The jury would be asked to determine how much money will fairly compensate Barbara Bagley for the harm she caused herself,” attorneys Peter Christensen and Kathryn Tunacik were quoted as saying. “The jury will be highly confused — it cannot order a person to compensate herself,” they said. (pti)
Japanese company develops world’s most powerful microscope
Tokyo: Japanese multinational conglomerate Hitachi has developed a microscope with the world’s highest resolution based on the transmission of electrons and capable of making observations at the atomic level, company officials told Efe news agency on Friday.The transmission electron microscope (TEM), work on which was started in 2010, was completed this week and has a 43-picometre resolution (a picometre is one-trillionth of a metre and 43 picometres is less than half the radius of most atoms).The device, which occupies an entire room, was able to achieve this record-breaking resolution thanks to a large concentration of electron emissions through cables and circuits specially designed for this task, said a Hitachi spokesperson.Other striking features of the microscope are the acoustic lining on its base to reduce the negative impact of vibrations as well as the installation of magnetic barriers around the device.This reduces the effect of external factors that cause lens aberrations and affect the resolution, the main limitation of such microscopes, according to the company.Electron microscopes, invented in 1930 by German physicist Ernst Ruska, have a much higher resolution than optical ones due to the use of electrons instead of photons thus allowing scientists to study the structure and composition of atoms in a wide number of materials. The new device will allow scientists to optically observe atomic positions, which, according to Hitachi, could help them in developing new materials with diverse applications. (ians)
Toymakers create doll inspired by Scotland’s Loch Ness monster
London: The toymakers who introduced the world to the Barbie doll have created a new doll inspired by Scotland’s Loch Ness monster myth.Lorna McNessie is one of the latest additions to Mattel’s ‘Monster High’, a range of characters that also includes zombies, ghosts and werewolves, BBC reported.She is described as the daughter of the Loch Ness Monster and is from Rotland, Monster High’s version of Scotland.Loch Ness Bid, an organisation that promotes the loch and surrounding area, has welcomed the doll’s creation.”The introduction of the character Lorna McNessie is a testament to the continued interest and drawing power of the Loch Ness Monster,” a spokesman for Loch Ness Bid said.”The monster is shrouded in mystery and perhaps slightly scary in a nice way for children and it is therefore of little surprise that Mattel have chosen to introduce this character, daughter of the Loch Ness Monster.””I am sure that it will have many children begging their parents to take them to be of benefit to the area,” he added.As well as the doll, Mattel has had an animation made of the tartan-clad Lorna McNessie.The short film shows her having to leave Rotland for Monster High to avoid publicity caused by her appearance out of the loch.Other toymakers have drawn inspiration from Scotland in the past.In 2013, a Scottish island was twinned with a video game’s virtual world.Skye’s twinning with the fictional isles of Skylands was done to promote a new version of Skylanders.VisitScotland said at the time that the move would also boost tourism to Skye, and was the first time a video game “world” had been twinned with a real place. (ians)
