Usher and Tameka expecting second child

Less than a year after becoming parents, R&B singer Usher and his wife, Tameka Foster, are expecting their second child together, according to People magazine. The couple, who married in August 2007, welcomed Usher Raymond V, whose nickname is Cinco, last November. The new parents are shown at left cuddling up front-row at fashion week in February. Usher, who released "Here I Stand" earlier this year, is preparing to go on a ladies-only tour, dubbed the "One Night Stand" tour.
Usher and Tameka are one of many high-profile couples who were got married under the radar. Click here to check out other secret weddings.(Frank Micelotta/Getty Images)

Nas and Kelis are expecting

Rapper Nas and singer Kelis are preparing to welcome their first child together. "It's all they are talking about. She is carrying hip-hop royalty," an insider told People magazine. The couple married in Atlanta in 2005. This will be Kelis' first child. Nas has a 15-year-old daughter, Destiny, from a previous relationship.(Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Mexican drug suspect confessed to disposing 300 bodies

OJO DE AGUA, Mexico (Reuters) - A Mexican drug suspect has confessed to dissolving the bodies of 300 rivals with corrosive chemicals near the U.S. border, in a claim highlighting the brutality of Mexico's drug war.

Santiago Meza, known as "The Stew Maker," told journalists he did away with bodies in industrial drums on the outskirts of the violent city of Tijuana.

More than 700 people died in Tijuana last year as rival gangs battled for control of the city's lucrative drug trade. Many others are missing and believed dead after being abducted.

The suspect, who was paraded before journalists by the army on Friday, said he was paid $600 a week by a breakaway faction of the Arellano Felix cartel to dispose of slain rivals with caustic soda, a highly corrosive substance.

Related
Kidnappers Target Americans in BajaWATCH: Mexico: The Plan to Win the Drug WarTijuana: Where the 'Drug War' Is Real"They brought me the bodies and I just got rid of them," Meza said at a construction site where he said he dissolved 300 corpses. "I didn't feel anything."

Meza, 45, said he had been getting rid of bodies for 10 years.

The bodies took 24 hours to dissolve but left some remains that were dumped in a nearby pit, Meza said.


A high-ranking army officer told Reuters he believed Meza, who was arrested with three other people on Thursday, was telling the truth.

Police have previously recovered human remains burned with acid in and around the city. more

Obama expects stimulus bill to be ready by mid-Feb

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama launched a drive on Friday to get his $825 billion economic recovery plan through Congress, predicting lawmakers would resolve differences before a mid-February deadline.
"We are experiencing an unprecedented economic crisis that has to be dealt with and dealt with rapidly," Obama told reporters as he met Democratic and Republican congressional leaders at the White House.
Obama, who was sworn in on Tuesday on a mandate of change, has pledged swift action to rescue the U.S. economy from the worst turmoil in decades. With a daily stream of gloomy economic data, he has warned there is little time to lose.
Winning Republican support for the stimulus package will be an early test of Obama's promise to forge consensus and overcome the partisan politics that bitterly divided Washington under his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.
In another show of bipartisanship, Obama will meet Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to hear their ideas about the stimulus plan, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Bush rarely visited Congress, preferring to send aides and sometimes his vice president, Dick Cheney.
Obama's appeal to Democrats and Republicans to set aside their differences appeared to pay swift dividends, with the most powerful Republican in Congress, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Friday calling for a joint effort to fix the economy.
It remains to be seen though how long this honeymoon will last. more

Beauty loses hands and feet

A STUNNING Miss World finalist had her hands and feet amputated – after contracting a killer bug, according to reports.
Doctors carried out the drastic surgery on Mariana Bridi da Costa after she was struck down with a urinary disease – which can be fatal.
Her boyfriend Thiago Simoes said 20-year-old Mariana fell ill on December 30 – but was initially misdiagnosed with kidney stones.
The infection quickly spread – causing her to go back to hospital for tests that revealed her condition.
Septicaemia set in her limbs, cutting off circulation and forcing doctors to amputate her hands and feet.
Devastated Mr Simoes said: "We are all absolutely distraught and are just praying now that she can pull through.

Infection ... Mariana
"She fell ill on December 30 and we took her to hospital where she was misdiagnosed with a kidney stone.
"They gave her some medicine and sent her home. But two days later she started getting worse.
"We took her back to hospital and they said she had a very serious infection.
"She got more and more sick, and had no blood circulation to her limbs.
"First she lost her feet, then on Tuesday she lost both her hands.
"But she is a very strong person and we just want her to survive."
Miss Bridi is in a serious condition on a ventilation machine in hospital in Serra, in the southeastern state of Espirito Santo. more

Case of Teens Charged With Spanking Elderly Shocks Community

ALBERT LEA, Minn. — Allegations that two young assistants groped, spanked and spat on several nursing home residents suffering from dementia have shaken members of this southern Minnesota community, including the lead prosecutor in the case.
Brianna Marie Broitzman and Ashton Michelle Larson, both 19, appeared in court Wednesday to face multiple charges over the alleged abuse at Good Samaritan Society. The young women did not enter pleas, and both were released on bail.

"I think that they are very serious charges," Freeborn County Attorney Craig Nelson said after the hearing. "We're dealing with people who are vulnerable adults. People who are clearly ... in need of our care and our concern and our monitoring. They depend on us for everything."
Nelson added: "I, as a member of this community, certainly can feel it in my bones."
Four younger aides were also charged earlier, with one pleading guilty and the others facing trials in Juvenile Court.
A criminal complaint alleges the abuse occurred over several months in early 2008. The complaint says in one case, Broitzman and Larson allegedly poked a woman in the breasts and laughed when she told them to stop.
more

Man murder wife because she changed her marital status to single

A man murdered his estranged wife after he became “enraged” that she had changed her marital status to single on the social networking site Facebook.
Edward Richardson, 41, was found guilty of stabbing to death Sarah Richardson, 26, a hairdresser, in her parents’ house in Staffordshire on May 12 last year.
Fiona Cortese of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Richarsdon became enraged when Sarah changed her marital status on Facebook to single and decided to go and see her as she was not responding to his messages.”
Stafford Crown Court heard that Richardson, a carpenter from Biddulph, Stoke-on-Trent, had sought out Mrs Richardson in her parents house and entered by breaking the front door window.
“Once inside he found Sarah in her bedroom and subjected her to a frenzied and brutal attack with a knife and then attempted to take his own life,” said Ms Cortese.
She said: “We hope that today’s guilty verdict will go some way to easing the pain of Sarah’s friends and family after losing her in such a violent and abrupt way.”