William, Kate release details of second baby
London: The second baby of Prince William and Kate Middleton will be born at the same London hospital as sibling Prince George, British royal sources said on Thursday. Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, will give birth once again at Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital in west London and is expected to introduce the new-born on the same steps outside as Prince George back in 2013.
“The royal couple do not know the sex of their child,” Kensington Palace said, quashing all speculation that Kate had been buying pink baby clothes in preparation of a baby girl. It is believed her due date is in the second half of this month and may still coincide with the May 7 General Election in case of a delayed pregnancy. Prince George, his father Prince William and uncle Prince Harry were all born in the same hospital and it was widely expected that the same wing would play host to his sister or brother to be. Royal officials said the couple are “hugely grateful” for the warm wishes they have already received.
During the birth of her second child, Kate will again benefit from the private wing being based within a National Health Service (NHS) hospital with facilities for premature babies, and access to hospital specialists. Prince George was delivered there weighing 8lb 6oz on July 22, 2013. The Lindo wing describes itself as having offered “leading private obstetric and neonatal care for 60 years”. Babies born on the same day as the second royal baby anywhere in the UK will be eligible to receive one of 2,015 free “lucky” silver pennies. The Royal Mint has announced it will mark the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s new child in the same way it commemorated the arrival of Prince George in 2013.
Parents of newborns who share a birthday with the new prince or princess will have to register the birth of their child on The Royal Mint’s Facebook page to receive the commemorative gift. Prince William and Kate’s second baby will become fourth in line to the throne, behind older brother Prince George, who is 18 months old. The second birth comes as new rules on royal succession have come into force, removing male bias and discrimination against Roman Catholics. If the new baby is a girl, she will follow Prince George and become fourth in line to the throne and will not be overtaken by any future younger brothers. The Act was passed by Parliament in 2013, but all the countries in which the Queen is head of state had to pass any necessary legislation before it took effect. (PTI)
Ex-hubby sued for posting divorce details on Facebook in Qatar
Dubai: A woman in Qatar has sued her former husband after he posted details of their divorce on Facebook. She said the posting of the details of the emotionally- charged separation on a social network caused her distress and affected her public reputation. In the complaint, the woman said her former husband meant to insult her by posting the details of the divorce on the popular social network, prompting friends to ask her about what happened during the marriage and the reasons for their separation, Gulf News reported today.
“His attitude affected my professional career and made me feel so uneasy with the flow of questions about the marriage and the divorce that I decided to move to another place. I am still concerned he will do it again,” the report quoted Qatari daily Al Sharq as saying. According to the woman, her ex-husband used the Facebook account of one of his friends to publish the divorce decision pronounced by the Sharia court. In her complaint, she said she wanted justice for what happened to her.
She also wanted legal assurances that her former husband would not bother her in any way. The case is to be reviewed by a court soon, the daily said. (PTI)
Mother kills son so she could blog on his illness
New York: A mentally-challenged mother in the US has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing her five-year-old son by administering him with a salt overdose so that she could write about his illness on social network websites. Lacey Spears, 27, chronicled her son’s illness on a personal blog called Garnett’s Journey. “Her actions that day, they were inhuman.
They despicable. They were evil,” said Doreen Lloyd, Westchester County’s assistant district attorney. Spears’ condition, Munchausen by proxy syndrome, caused her to crave the attention that being a mother with a sick child gave her, said acting state Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary. While he believes that Spears was suffering from a mental illness, he did not think it affected her competency to stand trial or the necessity for her to receive more than the minimum, 15-year sentence.
Spears was sentenced to 20 years in prison for committing second-degree murder. Spears had moved to Chestnut Ridge, about 35 miles northwest of New York City, 14 months before the boy’s death on January 23, 2014, living on the secluded Fellowship Community’s grounds where volunteers live with and care for senior citizens in need.
Lloyd described the child as a normal, healthy child whose illnesses were induced by his mother, who eventually killed him by putting a lethal amount of salt into the hospitalised boy’s feeding tube, all the while blogging and posting pictures to Facebook, USA Today reported. “She continued to portray him as a sick child for her own bizarre need for attention. She used that feeding tube as a weapon to kill him,” said Lloyd. (PTI)
American leads club of world’s eldest
Washington: At 115, Jeralean Talley is now the world’s oldest person. The American leads the elite club of “supercentenarians” — people more than 111 years old. It’s not as small a club as you might think. More than 50 people, carefully tallied by US researchers, have passed the milestone.
After Monday’s death of fellow American Gertrude Weaver, who would have turned 117 on July 4, Talley is the oldest person recorded by the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group (GRG). An African American, she was born in the southern US state of Georgia at the tail end of the nineteenth century on May 23, 1899. Talley is part of even more restricted club of three people recorded as having seen three centuries: the final years of the 19th, the full sweep of the 20th and the start of the 21st. In this she joins Susannah Mushatt Jones, also an African American, born July 6, 1899 and Italy’s Emma Morano-Martinuzzi, born November 29, 1899.
“There is always a small chance that there’s somebody out that has not applied. To show up at 116 is not very likely but it’s still possible,” said Robert Young, a GRG researcher and an expert for the Guinness Book of World Records.
The GRG, which bases its tally on the work of researchers, demographers, biologists and amateur enthusiasts, has for now counted 52 people — 50 women and two men — who have surpassed 111 years and can prove it with a birth certificate and marriage certificates for surname changes. Peru’s Filomena Taipe, who local authorities said died on Monday at the age of 117, did not have original proof of birth, said Young.
“Ninety-nine percent of people that claim to be over 115 turn out to be false,” the researcher said. (PTI)