Co-ordinated attacks by Islamist militants in the northern Nigerian city of Kano on Friday killed about 150 people, witnesses and reports say.

Hospitals and mortuaries are struggling to deal with the numbers of killed and injured still arriving.

A series of explosions ripped apart police buildings around the city, which is now under a 24-hour curfew.

The Boko Haram group said they carried out the attacks, which would be their bloodiest assault to date.

Police have so far confirmed only seven deaths, but eyewitnesses said bodies had been littering the streets and wagons had been deployed to collect them. (BBC)

Father Eugene Lewis was jailed for four years in September 2010.

The 77-year-old was found guilty of 11 charges of indecent assault between 1963 and 1973. He denied the charges.

On Tuesday, senior judges overturned three of the 11 counts and reduced his prison sentence from four years to two years and nine months.

Reasons for the decision reached by the Court of Appeal in Belfast will be given at a later date.

The abuse took place at the County Fermanagh home of the sisters. They said the abuse began when they were as young as seven.

In May 2010, a jury in Omagh unanimously convicted Lewis, who lived in Dublin before his six-week trial.

During the trial, the jury heard that Lewis had befriended the girls’ parents nearly 50 years ago.

Prosecuting QC Ken McMahon said the priest had "wormed his way" into the family and told the jury that although welcomed into their home at anytime, he often chose to call at bedtime or on Saturday bath night.

After the trial, defence solicitor Joe McVeigh said the priest intended to "fight to the last drop of his blood to establish his innocence completely".

Two human feet have been discovered near the famed Hollywood sign , as police and dogs combed the area for body parts following the discovery of a human head wrapped in a plastic bag and two severed hands.

The feet were found as officers were packing up for the evening, ahead of a further search for more body parts in Bronson Canyon scheduled for today, the Los Angeles Times reported.

At an earlier press conference, police said they believe the hands and head belong to the same body and they indicated that fingerprints might be retrievable because the hands were intact, myFOXla.com reported.

The hands were located just a short distance from where the severed head was found yesterday by two women walking dogs on the popular Bronson Canyon trail, which offers views of the Hollywood sign and Los Angeles.

Authorities believe it belonged to an Armenian male in his 40s, according to the Times.

Investigators are now going door to door in the nearby residential area to ask if neighbors have seen anything unusual in the past few days.

"We’re hoping we can find more remains," LAPD Commander Andrew Smith said.

Judging by the state of the head, law enforcement officials believe the man died recently and they are treating the case as a likely homicide.

Neighbours and hikers who frequent the trail told the Times they believe the head was probably dumped there after the rush of early-morning exercisers yesterday.

Authorities also said it is possible wild animals could have moved the body parts. The area is home to many coyotes.

Investigators will try using dental records and fingerprints to confirm the victim’s identity, reports say.

http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/crime/2012/01/18/exp-ng-hollywood-severed-head.hln#

Occupy San Francisco demonstrator is arrested during a protest in San Francisco

Just when I though I had heard every vile crime committed against children, this comes along. A school bus driver was arrested and charged with 2 counts of child sexual abuse.

San Francisco school-bus driver 55-year-old Roberto Marty is currently behind bars awaiting trial for allegedly molesting 2 eleven year old girls, one as far back as 2004.

That investigation was reportedly dropped, found to have no merit and Marty was allowed to resume his schoolbus driver position.

According to the San Francisco Examiner, another little girl accused him of molesting her repeatedly in 2011 which led to his firing, an investigation into this case and a reopening of the 2004 accusation.

Marty is now formally charged with 2 counts of felony molestation.

A trusted employee of First Student Inc. for 17 years, Marty transported children with special needs in The Unified School District.

How did an allegedly child molester get a job working with children? Which leads to another disturbing question: are there more children out there who are victims to this alleged child predator?

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — The parents of an eighth grader who was fatally shot by police inside his South Texas school are demanding to know why officers took lethal action, but police said the boy was brandishing – and refused to drop – what appeared to be a handgun and that the officers acted correctly.

The weapon turned out to be a pellet gun that closely resembled the real thing, police said late Wednesday, several hours after 15-year-old Jaime Gonzalez was repeatedly shot in a hallway at Cummings Middle School in Brownsville. No one else was injured.

"Why was so much excess force used on a minor?" the boy’s father, Jaime Gonzalez Sr., asked The Associated Press outside the family’s home Wednesday night. "Three shots. Why not one that would bring him down?"

His mother, Noralva Gonzalez, showed off a photo on her phone of a beaming Jaime in his drum major uniform standing with his band instructors. Then she flipped through three close-up photos she took of bullet wounds in her son’s body, including one in the back of his head.

"What happened was an injustice," she said angrily. "I know that my son wasn’t perfect, but he was a great kid."

Interim Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez said the teen was pointing the weapon at officers and "had plenty of opportunities to lower the gun and listen to the officers’ orders, and he didn’t want to."

The chief said his officers had every right to do what they did to protect themselves and other students even though there weren’t many others in the hallway at the time. Police said officers fired three shots.

Shortly before the confrontation, Jaime had walked into a classroom and punched a boy in the nose for no apparent reason, Rodriguez said. Police did not know why he pulled out the weapon, but "we think it looks like this was a way to bring attention to himself," Rodriguez said.

About 20 minutes elapsed between police receiving a call about an armed student and shots being fired, according to police and student accounts. Authorities declined to share what the boy said before he was shot.

The shooting happened during first period at the school in Brownsville, a city at Texas’ southern tip just across the Mexican border. Teachers locked classroom doors and turned off lights, and some frightened students dove under their desks. They could hear police charge down the hallway and shout for Gonzalez to drop the weapon, followed by several shots.

Two officers fired three shots, hitting Gonzalez at least twice, police said.

David A. Dusenbury, a retired deputy police chief in Long Beach, Calif., who now consults on police tactics, said the officers were probably justified.

If the boy were raising the gun as if to fire at someone, "then it’s unfortunate, but the officer certainly would have the right under the law to use deadly force."

A recording of police radio traffic posted on KGBT-TV’s website indicates that officers responding to the school believed the teen had a handgun. An officer is heard describing the teen’s clothes and appearance, saying he’s "holding a handgun, black in color."

The officer also said that from the front door, he could see the boy in the school’s main office.

Less than two minutes later, someone yells over the radio "shots fired" and emergency crews are asked to respond. About two minutes later, someone asks where the boy was shot, prompting responses that he was shot in the chest and "from the back of the head."

Administrators said the school would be closed Thursday but students would be able to attend classes at a new elementary school that isn’t being used.

Superintendent Carl Montoya remembered Gonzalez as "a very positive young man."

"He did music. He worked well with everybody. Just something unfortunately happened today that caused his behavior to go the way it went. So I don’t know," he said Wednesday.

Gonzalez Sr. said he had no idea where his son got the gun or why he brought it to school, adding: "We wouldn’t give him a gift like that."

He said he last saw his son around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, when the boy said goodbye before leaving to catch the bus to school. And he said nothing seemed amiss the night before when he, his wife and their son went out for nachos then went home and watched a movie.

Gonzalez Sr. was struggling to reconcile the day’s events, saying his son seemed to be doing better in school and was always helpful around the neighborhood mowing neighbors’ lawns, washing dogs and carrying his toolbox off to fix other kids’ bikes.

Two dozen of his son’s friends and classmates gathered in the dark street outside the family’s home Wednesday night. Jaime’s best friend, 16-year-old Star Rodriguez, said her favorite memory was when Jaime came to her party Dec. 29 and they danced and sang together.

"He was like a brother to me," she said.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/video?id=8491219

BEIJING — A bus went out of control and slipped from a snow-covered bridge in southern China, killing at least 18 people and injuring 37, state media reported Thursday.

The overloaded bus was carrying 57 people when it crashed in Guizhou province Wednesday afternoon, the Xinhua News Agency said.

It had been traveling from the central province of Anhui when it plunged from the bridge into a valley 30 feet (10 meters) below.

The accident follows the deaths of 13 people on Tuesday in central Hunan province, where a truck crossed a highway divider and crashed head-on into a bus traveling in the opposite direction. A separate truck-bus collision in the southwestern province in Yunnan on Wednesday killed eight and injured 13, Xinhua said Thursday.

The accidents came at the start of the annual Lunar New Year travel crunch, in which millions of people travel by plane, train and bus to visit family. The holiday this year falls on Jan. 23.

Road safety is a serious problem in China, with many accidents caused by poorly maintained roads and bad driving habits.

Badly maintained school transport has been the focus of public anger in recent months after a series of accidents in which schoolchildren were killed.

The 14-year-old victim was headed to the store for his mother when he was hit by a 2011 Ford Econoline van while crossing Flatlands Avenue near East 54th Street around 7:30 p.m.

The boy, identified as Davonte Jeffers, was left in the middle of the street while the driver took off. He was rushed in critical condition to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Authorities found the van and the driver about a block away, on Avenue A and East 55th Street. He has been identified as 41-year-old Paul Griffin, of Brooklyn.

Witnesses say the victim appeared to be in very bad shape following the accident.

"The kid was crossing from the middle of the street," a witness said. "He wasn’t saying nothing. I hope he’s going to make it…He didn’t breathe at all. It was bad."

The driver has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident with serious injuries and aggravated unlicensed operated of a vehicle. Additional charges are pending.

Stephen Gosling has been jailed for 13 years for inflicting a series of sickening injuries on a baby

A man who inflicted a series of agonising injuries on a baby in a ‘ghastly and terrifying’ campaign of abuse has been jailed for 13 years.

Stephen Gosling inflicted the horrific injuries over a two-week period by yanking at the youngster’s legs and squeezing the child so hard he broke its ribs.

When the mother took her child to hospital, the full extent of the abuse came to light.

The baby had fractures all over its body, including 12 to the front and back of several ribs, the right shoulder bone, left leg, right leg and left foot.

In all the child suffered 19 fractures.

Experts said the appalling injuries would have required substantial force to inflict and were of different ages, meaning they were not all inflicted at the same time.

Gosling had pleaded not guilty to a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent but was convicted by a jury.

Speaking after a trial at Newcastle Crown Court the child’s mother branded him ‘an animal’.

She said: ‘My baby was only weeks old when he did this and it is disgraceful.

Cameron Douglas and Michael Douglas

(Credit: AP Photo)

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK – A judge has nearly doubled the prison sentence for the son of actor Michael Douglas for repeat drug offenses.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman cited Cameron Douglas’ history of "reckless behavior" as he sentenced him to spend an additional four and a half years in prison. This new sentence has been added to the five years he is already serving for drug charges.

This new sentence was more than double what prosecutors wanted for Douglas’ guilty plea to drug charges that arose after he successfully smuggled drugs into prison.

The judge said he had never had a case before in which a defendant "has so recklessly, wantonly, flagrantly and criminally acted in such a destructive and manipulative fashion as Cameron Douglas has."

The 32-year-old Douglas asked the judge to give him a second chance at treatment. The judge recommended he be sent to a prison facility that can give him drug and mental health care.

"I cannot seem to find comfort within my own skin," he said. "I feel ashamed. I feel defeated. … I know that I bear in my heart what it will take to overcome this plague."

Douglas was arrested in July 2009 for dealing methamphetamine from a luxury Manhattan hotel.

Reports are that Aisha Sanders, 24, was indicted Thursday on aggravated murder and other charged in southwest Ohio.

The victim, Mary Muah, was found dead in her home on Dec. 20. The indictment states she died between Dec. 16 and Dec. 20, prosecutor’s spokesman Greg Flannagan said.

Prosecutors said Sanders sold her grandmother’s TV to get money for drugs and took her grandmother’s car. Law enforcement officials found her in that car, which had run out of gas.

Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr. said in a news release, "The defendant robbed and killed her own elderly grandmother, in order to obtain money to buy illegal drugs."

Sanders remained in jail Thursday with her bail set at $1 million.

An arraignment hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 3 in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.