END COMES FOR NIGERIAN SLAVE TRADER WHO SOLD WOMEN AROUND EUROPE FOR SEX UNDER THE SPELL OF HIS 'JUJU' WITCHCRAFT

A sex trafficker who used African witchcraft rituals to silence 

West African juju rituals were used to instil terror into Osolase's three vulnerable victims, one aged just 14, who felt helpless because they feared retribution and had no-one to turn to. 

At Canterbury Crown Court on Friday, he was found guilty of five counts of trafficking for sexual exploitation, and one each of rape and sexual activity with a child.   Sentencing him today, Judge Adele Williams told Osolase, a recycling worker from Beaumont Drive, Gravesend, Kent, that he was "devoid of conscience, devoid of compassion to your victims".   Osolase, who has HIV, showed no emotion as sentence was passed.   

Judge Williams told him he put his victims "in fear" by using juju rituals to force their obedience and secure their silence.

She said he was responsible for a "cruel deception" by promising the girls, one of whom lived under a bridge in Nigeria, a better standard of life in the UK.  The judge said: "You were dealing in exploitation and manipulation and degradation. You have been convicted on clear and compelling evidence."  She went on: "I have seen and heard you give evidence and you are undoubtedly a very, very dishonest man. You are arrogant and manipulative, you are devoid of conscience, devoid of any compassion to your victims."

The judge said Osolase treated the girls as "objects" to be sold as "sex slaves". And she said the fact that he raped one girl knowing he has HIV was a "seriously aggravating" feature.

It was recommended that Osolase be deported once he has served his sentence.   Detectives revealed that one 16-year-old girl described how a juju ceremony performed on her in Nigeria involved her having samples of blood extracted.

Hair from her head and intimate parts were also cut and she was made to swear an oath of silence and smuggled into Britain before an unsuccessful attempt was made to farm her out to Italy.  Witchcraft rituals are sometimes used by Nigerian traffickers to force victims into obedience or compel them to pay back vast sums of money.

A senior detective said Osolase corrupted the well-established belief of juju in an attempt to "gain control and bend the wills" of his young victims.   During the six-week trial, Osolase, nicknamed "Uncle", refused to admit trafficking the teenagers, forcing them to relive the crimes in front of a jury.  Some of the girls had travelled to Britain with dreams of gaining modelling work or a better education, but prosecutors said they instead endured "heartless abuse" at every turn.

Police believe there were at least 25 suspected victims of the trafficking ring, which smuggled girls using fake passports and visas from Nigeria and into the UK and on to countries including Italy and Spain.  Investigators said the case was difficult to bring to court because human trafficking victims often fear retribution against themselves and their families back home.  Their experience of authorities in their home country often leaves them lacking confidence in the justice system but British officials said the girls were courageous in giving evidence.

Painstaking inquiries were conducted on a mass of data from pre-paid credit cards, email addresses, flight records and mobile phones to prove Osolase was involved in smuggling the girls to Britain.   He was stopped at Stansted Airport in Essex in April last year, leading inquiries by the UK Border Agency to then be passed to the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate.   Investigations revealed that he was the prime suspect in multiple human trafficking offences where girls had been flown from Nigeria to the UK before being sent out to Europe.

In mitigation, Anthony Orchard QC, defending, said Osolase suffers from glaucoma, rendering him 90% blind in one eye.

He also said Osolase disclosed that he had HIV voluntarily to police, and that his German wife has stood by him throughout the trial process.  Mr Orchard said: "Mr Osolase acknowledges and regrets the consequences of his actions in relation to taking the girls out of the UK, and he has to bear the consequences of those actions."

Culled: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jailed-for-20-years-the-slave-trader-in-britain-who-sold-women-around-europe-for-sex-under-the-spell-of-his-juju-witchcraft-8230852.html

BRITAIN'S YOUNGEST SEX-SWAP PATIENT WANTS TO BE A BOY AGAIN

'I was a boy.. then a girl.. now I want to be a boy again': Agony of of teen who is Britain's youngest sex-swap patient

Teenager Ria Cooper has spent the last year having hormone injections to turn her from a boy into a girl.   Formerly named Brad, she has ­already developed breasts, dresses in glamorous outfits, wears her hair in a feminine bob and has dated several young men.

At 18, she is Britain’s youngest sex-swap patient.  Yet despite thousands of pounds worth of NHS treatment, as well as psychiatric and doctors’ assessments, Ria has now decided she wants to go back to being a BOY.   Her decision, which comes after two suicide attempts, calls into ­question whether she was too young to be allowed to swap sexes in the first place.

“Life has really got on top of me recently,” she says. “The hormones have made me feel up and down. One minute I feel moody and the next minute I feel really happy.   “A couple of months ago I’d had enough and took a lot of paracetamol but my friend found me and made me sick. Just before that, I’d tried to slash my wrists and ended up in hospital. I get these dark moods when ­nothing seems right.

“The night I tried to slash my wrists I’d downed a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and just thought about how alone I am, how my decision has alienated my family and how I will have to become a boy again to resolve it.

“I don’t want to live in isolation, away from everyone I love. This is the only way forward. I just want to be happy and this is my last chance.”

As a teenager, 

Ria begged doctors to turn her into a girl

ITV/Sunday Mirror Grab

Ria, of Hull, East Yorks, has been dressing as a girl since she was 12. As Brad, she would wear clothes ­belonging to her three older sisters and borrow her mum’s ­lipstick.

At school she was taunted for being gay and was eventually excluded for getting into fights.  Aged 15, she begged doctors to turn her into a woman, believing it would change her life for the better.

She was referred to a psychologist at Hull Royal Infirmary and later to the Gender Identity Clinic in London, where specialists agreed she was a woman trapped in a man’s body.  Aged 17, Ria started hormone ­injections, making her the youngest ever patient in the UK to receive such treatment. But the controversial ­decision has devastated her life.  She has fallen out with family, got into dangerous situations with men and even worked as a prostitute.  Female hormone injections have seen her develop tiny breast buds and she no longer has to shave every day. She is booked in for the full ­transgender op in January but now says she will no longer go ahead with it.

Born a boy and called Brad, he was always dressing as a girl

“It will be strange because the last time I dressed properly as a boy I was about 10 years old,” she says.  “I’m still conscious of the way I look and I want to look like a trendy gay man rather than a girl-boy.”

Ria’s last hormone injections were three months ago when she told her doctor she will not be having any more. The breasts she has developed should slowly disappear.  She says: “I just can’t be what I want to be. My mum Elaine loves and ­supports me as much as she can, yet she doesn’t allow me to live at home any more. My dad barely speaks to me and says I’m an embarrassment. I think as the only boy in the ­family he thought I’d follow him into the steel business and pictured us working out together at the gym.  “Obviously it’s not turned out like that. I don’t know who I can trust as friends. I feel really, really alone.”  Critics warned two years ago that Ria’s tender years meant she was too young to make the decision to become a woman.

Last night child psychologist Karen Sherr, formerly of Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: “It’s absolutely ­ludicrous for young kids to make such huge, life-changing decisions... and for doctors and their parents to support it.   “At that age you haven’t developed fully, neither physically nor ­emotionally. You’re still exploring your ­sexuality and you don’t know how you might end up.  “Children need to be allowed to grow into adults before they go through with something like a sex change because, as this case shows, at that age you don’t know yourself well enough.”

But Ria insists: “I don’t regret my original decision. I’ve always known I wanted to be female since I was a little girl but it’s all led to so much trouble.”  Choking back tears, Ria reveals how hormone ­treatment has left her ­feeling ­emotionally unstable, highlighting the two suicide attempts she has made in the last three months.  At 5ft 10ins with a head of glossy raven hair, Ria attracts a lot of male ­attention, but her fragile mental condition has led to low self-­esteem.

“The hormones have given me ­emotions I find it hard to cope with, teamed with a high sex drive,” she says. “Over the last year everything has been about sex and boys and wanting to be loved.  “I’ve had a couple of boyfriends who’ve known what I am, but straight men just see me as some sort of lady boy, a freaky challenge to notch up on their bedpost.  “Gay men don’t want me because they want a real man. I’ve nobody at the minute and don’t feel I can ever find love the way I am.

“There’s nothing to guarantee I will find love as Ria or Brad but I think I’ll have more luck as a gay man.”  Ria admits to dabbling in prostitution – something touched on by a recent ­Channel 4 documentary which followed her life over a year. “If there’s one thing I regret it’s that but, as usual, it was all about ­looking for love and being loved.

“At the time I thought the guys booking me must have really liked me as a person, but now I just realise I was some sort of secret thrill to them. I cheapened myself thinking I was ­being loved.  “I’ve spent the last year looking for love in some way or another... through ­prostitution, on the internet or with ­strangers I meet in bars.  “I now know I have to like myself before anyone else appreciates me. All I want to do now is find a nice man as Brad and settle down into some sort of normality.”

The rift with her dad Bjorn, who split from Ria’s mum when she was three, has left her deeply affected.  She says: “When he saw the ­documentary he called me and said he was disgusted. I phoned him the other week to say I’d be near his home in Hull and asked if we could meet up but he said he was busy.  “I know my mum loves me but it’s hard for her to take despite ­trying to be ­supportive. It just seems everything is against me ­becoming a woman and I’ve had enough.  “I just feel tortured. I feel really ­depressed. I have real problems sleeping. Sometimes I’m still up at 4am just thinking about how life is.”

Ria says she used to be close to her sisters but her relationship with them has also suffered, adding: “They’ve been great but I know they feel everything this has put Mum and Dad through.” Jobless Ria has now moved away from Hull and is sleeping on a friend’s floor nearby. She says: “I just wanted a fresh start, to go somewhere where nobody knows me.”  Now she’s considering a career in the Army.  “At least if I go back to being a boy I’ll be able to join without discrimination from other soldiers,” she says. “Gay male recruits are now more accepted.  “I’ve always wanted to join the Forces. Ironically. I’ve dated quite a few soldiers over the past two years!”

Culled from: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/britains-youngest-sex-swap-patient-wants-1403321

HURRICANE SANDY BLOWS AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS OFF COURSE

Hurricane Sandy blew the U.S. presidential race off course on Sunday even before it came ashore, forcing Republican Mitt Romney to shift his campaign inland and fueling fears that the massive storm bearing down on the East Coast could disrupt an election that is already under way.

As he juggled his governing duties with his re-election effort, President Barack Obama said the heavily populated East Coast could face power failures and other disruptions for several days.  

"Don't anticipate that just because the immediate storm has passed that we're not going to have some potential problems in a lot of these communities going forward through the week," Obama said after a visit to the federal government's storm-response center.

President Barack Obama receives an update on the ongoing response to Hurricane Sandy during a conference call with FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, Dr. Rick Knabb, Director of the National Hurricane Center, and John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, in the Oval Office, Oct. 26, 2012. Alyssa Mastromonaco, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, and Richard Reed, Deputy Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, are seated at right. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Romney re-routed his campaign from Virginia to join his vice presidential running mate Paul Ryan in Ohio, one of the handful of battleground states that will decide the outcome of the November 6 election.  

"You are the battleground of battlegrounds. You get to decide," Ryan told a crowd of 1,000 people who were not able to join 2,000 others in a high school gymnasium in Celina, Ohio.

Obama later flew to Florida for a campaign stop. Like Romney, he canceled events in Virginia, a battleground state that could bear the brunt of the storm's impact.

Both campaigns also canceled events in New Hampshire, which could face high winds and heavy rain.

"The last thing the president and I want to do is get in the way of anything. The most important thing is people's safety and people's health," Vice President Joe Biden told campaign volunteers in Manchester, New Hampshire, before leaving for Ohio.  

Officials in the path of the storm scrambled to ensure that extended power outages would not disrupt the early voting that appears to be critical for both candidates this year.  

Obama said he did not think the storm would impact voting, but some on his campaign staff were not so certain.   

"Obviously we want unfettered access to the polls because we believe that the more people that come out, the better we'll do," top Obama adviser David Axelrod said on CNN.

Republican Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell said his state plans to extend early voting hours and restore power quickly to election facilities in the event of outages.

Officials in neighboring Maryland said early voting stations would close on Monday.

WINDS OF UNCERTAINTY

The looming storm threw another note of uncertainty into a race that remains a statistical dead heat.  

The vast majority of voters have made up their minds at this point, and more than one in five have already cast their ballots. But the storm could throw a wrench in the campaigns' efforts to drive voters to the polls in the final days before the election and will require them to ensure that their armies of door-knocking volunteers stay safe.

An extended power outage could sideline millions of dollars worth of television advertising that is set to saturate the airwaves in the final days of the race.  

It also scrambles their efforts to schedule rallies in the handful of states that are likely to decide the outcome.  

"The poll numbers aren't changing that much and I don't think the storm is going to change that dynamic. It's just going to present logistical challenges for the campaign," Hunter College political science professor Jamie Chandler said.

A severe disruption could hurt Obama more than Romney because his campaign has counted on early voting to lock up the support of those who may be less likely to vote on Election Day, Chandler said.

Officials from both campaigns said they were confident they would be able to get their message out and drive voters to the polls over the coming days. But they recognized that, after years of obsessive planning and nearly $2 billion in campaign expenditures, the storm had introduced a last-minute element of chaos.   

"There's certain things we can't control and nature is one of them. We try to focus on the things that we can control," Romney adviser Kevin Madden told reporters.

There is some evidence that natural disasters can hurt an incumbent's re-election chances as voters often blame whoever is in office for adversity.

Research by Larry Bartels of Vanderbilt University and Christopher Achen of Princeton University found that Vice President Al Gore may have lost the election in 2000 because of severe drought and excessive rainfall in seven states.  

Bush's approval ratings plummeted after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, and voters could similarly blame Obama if the government fumbles its response to this storm.  

But there are also dangers for Romney, who will have to be careful to avoid being seen as politicizing the disaster. His campaign's hasty response to the attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions in the Middle East in September was widely criticized.

The Obama campaign said it would suspend fundraising e-mails in the mid-Atlantic region on Monday and encouraged supporters to donate to the Red Cross.  

Opinion polls show the race to be essentially tied at the national level.   

A Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released on Sunday found Obama leading Romney among likely voters by 49 percent to 46 percent, within the online survey's credibility interval. Among all registered voters, Obama held a wider lead of 51 percent to 39 percent.

However, Obama retains a slim advantage in many of the battleground states that will decide the election.  

A Washington Post poll released on Sunday found Obama leading Romney by 51 percent to 47 percent in Virginia, just outside the poll's margin of error.  

In Ohio, a poll by a group of newspapers found the two tied at 49 percent each. Other polls have shown Obama ahead there.

Romney received the endorsement of Iowa's largest newspaper, the Des Moines Register, which has not backed a Republican since 1972. He also won the endorsement of newspapers in Richmond and Cincinnati.

Obama won the endorsement of newspapers in Miami, Detroit and Toledo, Ohio, as well as The New York Times.

Culled from: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/28/us-usa-campaign-idUSBRE89M11220121028

THE COMING OBAMA LANDSLIDE

As the stage is set for the 57th quadrennial American presidential elections and the race to the White House draws to a close on Tuesday 6th November, some book makers are predicting an Obama landslide in an election that has been described as the most expensive and bitter election in American history.



In terms of demographics, Mitt Romney has one path to victory: overwhelming support from white voters. At the least, he’ll have to outperform every Republican since Ronald Reagan, and win 60 percent of their votes. And this is if minority turnout is at its 2008 levels. If it increases, he needs even more whites to make up the difference.

Seniors play a key part in this coalition. The New Republic’s Nate Cohn puts it bluntly: “Romney’s road to the White House runs through seniors.” John McCain won 51 percent of seniors, beating Obama by four percentage points. At the moment, Cohn notes, Obama’s support among this group is in the low 40s. If the former Massachusetts governor can outperform McCain and crush Obama among older Americans, he can eke out a narrow win. But if Obama can hold his own—and move closer to his 2008 total—he’ll have secured victory.

Enter Paul Ryan. As a congressman, the Wisconsin representative’s signature accomplishment is a proposal to reform entitlements, particularly Medicare. In its original incarnation, Ryan’s Medicare reforms would replace guaranteed health care with a vouchers, which seniors could use to purchase health insurance on a private market. Because Ryan designs his vouchers to fall behind rising medical costs, most seniors would find themselves forced to pay more out of pocket.

More recently, after criticism from all sides, he released a less conservative variation of his original proposal. The structure hasn’t changed, but traditional Medicare is preserved as an option. The problem is that new beneficiaries would be automatically enrolled in the new program, leaving traditional Medicare to collapse under the burden of fewer participants and higher costs.

There’s little popular support for transforming Medicare into a series of vouchers. In a survey last year, the Washington Post and ABC News found massive opposition to Ryan’s original proposal—65 percent opposed a plan to provide vouchers, which grew to 85 percent when respondents were told that the vouchers wouldn’t pay for full medical care. According to CNN last June, 50 percent of those surveyed oppose the plan, and 56 percent say it would be bad for the elderly. Among seniors themselves, 74 percent oppose it.

Given the extent to which the Obama campaign was ready—at the outset of the general election—to shiv Mitt Romney over his tax returns and tenure at Bain Capital, it’s probably true that Chicago has a wealth of material to use against the newly minted vice presidential nominee. It’s possible that these attacks could fall flat, and Romney doesn’t suffer for his running mate’s Medicare policies.

I’m skeptical. Not only is Romney already running away from the Ryan budget, but in a world where “my opponent cuts Medicare” is a potent attack, it’s a little odd to think that this wouldn’t have a negative effect on Romney’s standing with seniors.

In all likelihood, any gains from the Ryan pick—in terms of mobilizing the conservative base—are offset (or even outweighed) by the fact that Romney has introduced a huge a new danger to his campaign. If Obama’s Medicare attacks are successful in peeling off seniors from Romney’s coalition, the path to 50+1 percent of the vote is much more difficult—if not impossible—for the former Massachusetts governor.

Indeed, as Sean Trende (who is far from easy toward Obama) points out at Real Clear Politics, this new vulnerability introduces the potential for something that was quite unlikely before—an Obama landslide. He explains: I’ve always thought that Obama wouldn’t be able to win more than a two-to-three-point re-election victory, mainly because a president almost never wins the votes of people who disapprove of the job that he is doing, and Obama’s approval rating is unlikely to be much above 50 percent on Election Day. But, while I don’t think it’s guaranteed, this really does give Democrats an opportunity to make Romney so radioactive that people who don’t like the president nevertheless vote for him. If the white working class revolts at the prospect of the Ryan plan, Obama really could match, or even exceed, his 2008 showing.

There’s always a tendency to assume some strategic calculation on the part of politicians—or find some reason for why a given choice isn’t a bad one—but in this case, the simplest explanation is probably the correct one. Ryan is an unknown politician with a deeply unpopular plan. Right now, the conventional wisdom is that this somehow means he was a smart pick who can help Romney win voters who are looking for “big” solutions to our problems.

Ignoring, for a moment, the fact that Ryan doesn’t actually offer solutions to mass unemployment or budget sustainability, it’s worth focusing on the obvious: It’s never a good thing when your vice presidential pick makes it more likely you’ll lose.




Culled from: http://prospect.org/article/coming-obama-landslide
http://2012.presidential-candidates.org/

NATINA REED, MEMBER OF R&B TRIO BLAQUE KILLED IN GEORGIA

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Natina Reed, a member of the R&B singing trio Blaque, was struck and killed by a car as she walked in a major roadway in Georgia, police said on Saturday.

Reed, who also appeared in the cheerleader movie "Bring It On" in 2000, would have turned 33 on Sunday.  She was struck by a car at about 10:30 p.m. Friday on a state highway just north of the Atlanta suburb of Lilburn, Gwinnett County Police Sergeant Rich Long said.  The car's driver called 911 and a passenger performed CPR but Reed was pronounced dead at an area medical center, police said. Authorities ruled the driver was not at fault and no charges were expected to be filed, Long said.  Investigators were trying to determine why Reed was in the road, Long said.

As part of Blaque, Reed performed the 1999 hits "Bring It All to Me" and "808" with fellow members Shamari Fears DeVoe and Brandi Williams.

Reed's fellow group members said in a statement on Saturday that Blaque had recently reunited and the group was working on an album and a reality show.   "My world as I know it has forever changed," DeVoe said on Twitter on Saturday. "Until we meet again, may you find comfort in the arms of an angel. I love you Natina."

Culled from: 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/28/entertainment-us-usa-people-reed-idUSBRE89R00Y20121028