>If we had to report every time some right-wing guy on Twitter said something moronic we’d be here all day, but sometimes someone says something so jaw-droppingly vapid that you have to sit up and pay attention.

https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/altright-activist-embarrasses-stan-lee-captain-marvel-comments/

https://www.wlwt.com/article/happy-birthday-to-cincinnatis-thousand-pound-toddler/26012054
>Cincinnati's thousand-pound toddler entered her terrible twos Thursday, a major milestone for the premature hippo who almost didn't make it.
>Fiona celebrated her second birthday Thursday. It's a big deal for the half-ton of pure hippo sass, considering she weighed a fifth of what a normal baby hippo should weigh when she was born Jan. 24, 2017.
>"Fiona is remarkable for being unremarkable now," said Cincinnati Zoo Curator of Mammals Christina Gorsuch. "She's just like most other 2-year-old hippos, except for the fact that she's a celebrity in Cincinnati and beyond!"
>Last year, the zoo hosted a big party to celebrate Fiona's first birthday, but this year the party will be a bit more subdued -- birthdays are lame when you get older, anyway.
>Fiona will be given a special cake, but will remain behind the scenes throughout the day as it's too cold for her to come outside.
>"The enthusiasm and loyalty that Fiona fans have for her is like nothing I've ever seen," said Cincinnati Zoo director Thane Maynard. "The positive energy is contagious! Some of her super fans gather at Hippo Cove almost every day to enjoy the company of other Fiona enthusiasts and catch a glimpse of her."
>Fiona weighed 29 pounds when she was born, which is about 25 pounds lighter than the lowest recorded birth weight for this species. The normal range is 55-120 pounds.
>She has become an ambassador for her species and a great example of why zoos exist.
>She survived because of her animal care team's tireless efforts to save her and has inspired many to care about her species and wildlife, which is Cincinnati Zoo's mission.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzjkuZ_zrmI

No one ever said that ending a romantic relationship was easy, but planning your own kidnapping and subsequent murder just to avoid telling someone “it’s over” sounds ridiculous. And yet, one Chinese woman did just that rather than tell her boyfriend she didn’t want to be with him anymore.

A 37-year-old woman from Wuhan, in central China’s Hubei Province, was recently arrested after it was revealed that she had faked her own kidnapping and murder at the hands of her ex-husband in order to avoid having to break up with her current boyfriend, whose financial situation she considered lacking. The woman, surnamed Yu, had been dating her boyfriend, Lin, for a while, but she only learned that he was poor after visiting his home during the Chinese New Year. It was something she apparently just couldn’t get over, so she decided to leave him, but fearing that he would get clingy and refuse rejection if she simply told him she wanted to end the relationship, Yu devised a plan to make herself disappear.


On February 21st, shortly after returning from the disappointing visit to Lin’s home town, Yu disappeared from the couple’s dormitory at the Huangpi Jiahai Industrial Park, and a few minutes later she called her boyfriend to tell him that she had been kidnapped by her ex-husband.

“Come and save me, my ex-husband has kidnapped me. Come quickly! I think I’m on the highway already,” the 37-year-old woman said before abruptly ending the call.

To make her kidnapping seem more believable, Yu then sent her boyfriend several text messages pretending to be her kidnapper, warning him that she would be killed if he dared call the police. She then followed up with more texts, informing Lin that she had been killed and her body had been thrown in a lake.


https://www.odditycentral.com/news/woman-fakes-own-kidnapping-and-murder-to-break-up-with-poor-boyfriend.html

In the wake of the Christchurch shooting, New Zealand began restricting access to several websites for New Zealand citizens. The ban targeted less popular websites that were hosting footage of the attack without incentive or resources to remove the content as it appeared.

Twenty hours ago, Telstra also began pulling down sites for general Australian access. These now include several Chan-forums, Live-Leak, and 0 Hedge. Vodafone and Optus are two other major providers that have since restricted access to these sites as well. At this time, iiNet has not restricted consumer access to websites.

A New Zealand teenager is also facing court charges over distributing footage of the attack online. The teenager, whose name was suppressed by the judge, was also charged with publishing a photograph of the mosque with the message "target acquired". He faces a maximum of 14 years in prison for each charge, prosecutors said.
A judge did not grant him bail and he is due back in court on April 8.

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/telstra-and-vodafone-temporarily-block-websites-after-christchurch-attack-522232

>LONDON (Reuters) - Assets worth around a trillion pounds are moving from London to hubs in the European Union ahead of Brexit, with the parallel shift in jobs likely to top 7,000, consultants EY said on Wednesday.

>Banks, asset managers and insurers in London are opening or expanding hubs in the EU to avoid disruption from Britain’s departure from the European Union. Britain is legally due to leave next week, but the British government is asking Brussels for a delay.

>In its latest Brexit Tracker, EY said that 23 companies have announced the transfer of about a trillion pounds in assets, up from 800 billion pounds in the last quarter. Dublin remains the most popular destination for relocations, with 28 companies saying they have plans to set up shop there, but Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Paris are catching up, with between 21 and 18 firms.

>“As 29 March draws nearer, companies are reconfirming or revising the statements they have made about the extent of staff and operational changes they are making, but we are not seeing many last-minute surprises - firms are executing their plans as expected,” EY said in a statement.

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-banks/trillion-pounds-of-assets-leave-london-ahead-of-brexit-ey-idUSKCN1R114E

It's happening!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncxo3SFnekg

A strict mother in China reportedly abandoned her 12-year-old son in the middle of a busy street in Luoyang City after he only managed to score 81 percent on an exam, which apparently wasn’t good enough.

Police officers in Luoyang’s Gucheng district found the boy wandering the streets close to where his mother dropped him off before driving away. They had been alerted by passers-by who saw the woman stopping her car in the area, pulling the boy out and then scolding and hitting him before leaving him there by himself. CCTV footage shows the officers approaching the disoriented child in an attempt to find out what happened. They later told local reporters that the boy had been abandoned for not achieving the 95 percent score that his mother expected on a recent exam.

“Was it your mother who beat you?” one police officer can be heard asking the boy, surnamed Yang, in the police car, to which the 12-year-old answers “Yes, I didn’t do well in my exam”.

After interviewing eye-witnesses and identifying the woman who abandoned the boy by her car’s license plate number, officers took the boy to the station and contacted the woman to come pick him up. Shockingly, the mother told police that she did not want him back, and that she would not come to get him even if they threatened to charge her.

‘I don’t want him anymore. You can do whatever you want with him. You can even charge me,” the strict mother said during the phone call.

According to the police report, the 12-year-old boy spent about an hour at the station before being picked up by an uncle. It is unclear if he was taken back by his mother, or if the police plan to charge her with anything.


https://www.odditycentral.com/news/mother-abandons-12-year-old-child-in-the-street-for-not-performing-according-to-expectations-on-exam.html

Man forgives NZ shooter and pledges brotherly love less than 24 hours after wife shot dead
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/03/i-don-t-hate-him-i-love-him-widower-forgives-christchurch-gunman-who-killed-his-wife.html
>'I don't hate him, I love him': Widower forgives Christchurch gunman who killed his wife

A senior leader at the Deans Ave Mosque who lost his wife in the terror attack says he has forgiven the shooter.

Farid Ahmed says the extraordinary gesture to the man who killed so many of his friends is what his wife would have wanted.

Christchurch terror attack: Crowd sings 'Imagine', 'Hallelujah' at victim memorial
Christchurch terror attack: Where you can pay your respects
Christchurch terror attack: Sam Neill's 'helpless anger' after deaths
The widower was first interviewed at the cordon on Friday shortly after the shooting broke out. At the time, he hadn't heard from his wife, and since then he's received terrible news.

Husna Ahmed ran classes for children at the mosque, while her husband gave sermons.

"She was probably more open than me; she could reach anyone, she was magnetic," Farid Ahmed told Newshub.

https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/gbi-arrests-former-north-georgia-detention-officer-rape-charges/3HNcjAOAHO19DJgBOcRYRK/

A former Murray County detention officer was arrested Friday on rape charges by the GBI.

Kirk Taylor Martin, 28, of Acworth, is accused of sexually assaulting a woman from Thursday afternoon until Friday morning, the GBI said in a news release.

He faces charges of rape, aggravated sexual battery, aggravated assault (family violence), criminal attempt to commit sodomy, false imprisonment and hindering an emergency call, the release said.

Martin worked as a jailer from March 2017 until he was fired in April 2018, according to Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council (POST) records.

Murray County sheriff's Deputy Chief Jimmy Davenport told the Dalton Daily Citizen-News that Martin was fired after multiple violations of jail policy. Those included giving an inmate the wrong prescription medication among other procedural issues.

He has no other experience in law enforcement in Georgia, POST records show. He passed his jailer certification class at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Cherokee County in September 2017. Among his training history, he logged two hours for a sexual harassment course while at the Murray County Sheriff’s Office.