Police Detain Coconut In Maldives For Potentially Tampering With Presidential Election

Police in the Maldives have detained a young, husky and possibly cursed suspect for potentially rigging the vote in a critical election. So far, a police interrogation has revealed only one thing: The suspect is a hard nut to crack.

That's because the perp is a coconut.

Minivan News, a Maldives newspaper, reports a young coconut was taken into custody Tuesday after police received reports that the suspicious fruit was loitering near the Guraidhoo Island School, a polling station to be used in the Sept. 7 presidential election.

Islanders fear the coconut may have been associated with black magic or been imbued with a spell to influence the election.

--> “The four-inch coconut had a 'Sura' [Quranic verse] written in Arabic and was lying on the ground near the school, easy for the public to see,” a source with knowledge of the incident told Minivan News. Authorities brought in a "ruqyah," or benevolent magician, who determined the coconut was fake and therefore posed no threat.

Black magic and sorcery are often accused of having undue influence on the island nation. In July, school administrators refused to let elections officials place a ballot box in the building, fearing it would attract black magic and make students ill. CNM News reports that the school assented only after the government agreed to be responsible for anyone who was "struck by a spell or [fell] ill."

In 2012, one of the island's religious leaders, Jamiyyathul Salaf, petitioned politicians to make sorcery and black magic illegal.

The heightened fears and rhetoric are perhaps more understandable, given what's at stake in the election. As The Guardian notes, former President Mohammed Nasheed was forced out of office in 2012 by what he has termed a coup. Nasheed is now facing off against three other candidates, one of whom, Abdullah Yameen, is a half-brother of the island nation's former dictator, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ran the country for 30 years until 2008.

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2-Year-Old Escapes From Day Care, Walks Half-Mile Home Alone

 2-year-old who walked out the door of a nursery school in Runcorn, England on Wednesday managed to find her way half a mile home completely on her own.

The parents of Louise Hilton, are none too impressed with Windmill Hill Nursery, where police say "workmen left a door open" that allowed the toddler to escape, the BBC reported.

--> "The security and staff at the nursery are a total shambles," her mother, Samantha Hilton, said, according to the Mirror. "[Louise] is quite bright and we think she’s spotted a door that was left open and she could get out."

It took the toddler about thirty minutes to walk the half-mile between the nursery and her home, the Metro reported. Her parents saw her knocking on the door at about 1 p.m.

“It is frightening to think what might of happened had the wrong person seen her," her father, John Hilton told the Mirror. "There is a canal 50 yards from the house and she always tries to jump in and feed the ducks when we go past but she cannot swim."

He added that the school has not apologized. A spokesman for Windmill Hill told the Mirror, "I have no comment to make."

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Man Burns Down Neighbor’s House Attempting To Get Rid of Wasp Nest

There are plenty of ways to take care of a wasp problem. You have bug spray, exterminators, and…uh…more bug spray. Guess which option a British man used on his neighbor’s home? A flaming rag.

According to the Telegraph, Lyndsey Brealey returned home with her two daughters from a short vacation to find a fire had gutted their home. Evidently, her neighbor took it upon himself to declare war on a nest of wasps that had taken up residence in a cavity of Brealey’s home. As her neighbor learned the hard way, war can get pretty messy.

The unidentified neighbor decided his best option was to

“smoke them out” by using a flaming rag tied to the end of a pole. Just a side note: When your solution to a problem is fire at the end of a stick you’re probably in for some trouble.

According to the neighbor, a gust of wind came buy and he quickly lost control of the fire. It took ten firefighters to eventually quell the fire but by then Brealey and her two daughters lost everything, including their pet hamster.

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Chicago Woman Charged With Raping Man At Gunpoint

A Chicago woman was jailed after being accused of picking up a stranger in her car and forcing him to have sex with another woman in the back of the vehicle.

Cierra Ross, a 25-year-old resident of suburb Olympia Fields, was charged with armed robbery and sexual assault stemming from the alleged crime, according to DNA Info.

Ross was booked Sept. 5 at the Cook County Sheriff's Department, where she is being held in lieu of $75,000 bail, according to police records.

Assistant State's Attorney Amanda Pillsbury told a Chicago judge in court on Thursday that the alleged incident began around 5 a.m. on the morning of July 26 when Ross offered the victim a ride, reports DNA Info. After he got into the car, however, Ross pulled a gun and "demanded [he] get into the backseat of the car and have sex with [her] friend," Pillsbury said, according to the site.

The man eventually escaped and -- wearing only his shirt -- flagged down a nearby cab, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The cab driver allowed the victim to email himself a picture of his alleged attackers' license plate. The victim also later picked Ross out of a line-up, per the Sun-Times.

Ross, a mother of two who works at a local Denny's restaurant, has a previous misdemeanor conviction for prostitution, according to the Sun-Times.

In a similar case in April, a Toronto man told police he was sexually assaulted by four women who offered to drive him home from a nightclub, according to the National Post.

Female-on-male rape is "presumed to be greatly under-reported," writes Salon. National studies report anywhere between 1.4 and 3 percent of men say they have been raped at some point, according to The New York Times. Another one in 21 men "had been forced to penetrate an acquaintance or a partner, usually a woman; had been the victim of an attempt to force penetration; or had been made to receive oral sex," according to The Times.

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Bus Driver Drops Kindergartener Off In Wrong Town

Sending your child off to his first day of kindergarten is nerve-racking for any parent, but to have them go missing that same day is simply a nightmare. Unfortunately, Valencia Bates of Blasdell, NY., a town outside of Buffalo, experienced just that on Tuesday when her 5 year-old son Jon Anderson was dropped off nearly 10 miles away from his home in a completely different town.

After finishing his first day of school at Central Charter in Buffalo, Anderson was supposed to be dropped off at his home in Blasdell, however the young boy was instead left outside of an apartment complex in Cheektowaga — several miles away from home — with no parent or adult in sight.

Anderson walked aimlessly around the apartment complex until a Good Samaritan spotted the boy looking lost and crying. The woman soon called the police and Anderson was eventually reunited with his mother two hours later.

The West Seneca School District is responsible for Anderson’s transportation to and from school, and have acknowledged that the driver went against school policy. “We have a practice in transportation where for kindergarten children, they are not to be let off the bus unless a parent’s there. So that protocol was not followed,” said the Superintendent Dr. Mark Crawford. Crawford claims the bus driver was under the impression Anderson was another little boy who was absent on Tuesday, but shared the same first name as Anderson.

The boy’s mother Valencia Bates, who works as a bus driver, is rightfully outraged with the school district and cannot understand why anyone would leave a child unattended. ”My baby sat on the curb and and cried. When he saw me, when I came out of the police station I told him ‘I love you so much.’ I was lost,” she said. “Anyone could have gotten Jon. Anybody not in their right mind could have got my baby.”

The superintendent would not say whether or not the bus driver would be fired, referring to it as an “internal matter.” What a nightmare. Our hearts truly go out to Valencia Bates and her little boy. We’re glad he was able to walk away unharmed.

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PHOTOS: These Trees Eat Things. Seriously.

We may try to control it, but nature really can't be tamed.

Case in point -- these hungry, hungry trees munching on everything from signs, to cars to entire buildings.

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VIDEO: Party In The Afterlife: This Coffin Comes With A Subwoofer And A Spotify Account

The dance of death eventually envelops us all, but until now there wasn’t any music.

That’s all changing, thanks to Swedish company Pause Ljud & Bild, which is offering coffins complete with speakers and a streaming Spotify account to keep the tunes rocking in the grave, MyFoxNY reports. For $30,000, audiophiles can jam all afterlife long in one of these special coffins, known as the CataCombo Sound System and featuring two-way speakers and a “divine” subwoofer.

Friends and relatives of the deceased can even select

songs to play using Spotify that will then go out over the coffin's speakers via a wireless 4G Internet connection embedded in the person's gravestone, according to the company's website.

Fredrik Hjelmquist, CEO of Pause, has vowed to be buried in one of the coffins and is allowing strangers to add to his "Pause 4-Ever" playlist. As Silicon Republic points out, it now features such fitting songs as Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own” and Jon Bon Jovi’s “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” -- but at only 931 songs for all eternity, Hjelmquist better hope the list is set on repeat.

The CataCombo Sound System first made headlines back in December 2012, before it included the addition of Spotify. The idea was lampooned on "The Colbert Report,"where Stephen Colbert summed up his take on the product: "If you just spend enough money, death will be pleasant.”

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South Korean 'Armadillo' car folds up for easy parking

With a click on a smartphone, the experimental "Armadillo-T" electric car made in South Korea will park itself and fold nearly in half, freeing up space in crowded cities.

The quirky two-seater, named after the animal whose shell it resembles, may never see production but it is part of a trend of developing environmentally friendly vehicles for urban spaces.

The car can travel 100 km (62 miles) on a 10-minute charge and has a maximum speed of 60 km per hour (37 miles per hour).

When it comes time to park, the rear of the vehicle folds over the front, almost halving its body length to just 1.65 meters (65 inches).

--> "They can be parked in every corner of the street and buildings, be it apartments, shopping malls or supermarkets," said Suh In-soo, a professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology who led development of the car.

Suh did away with rear-view mirrors by adding tiny digital cameras that show the back and sides of the car on a flat screen on the dashboard. A Windows-based computer system communicates with the driver's smartphone and enables self-parking.

The Armadillo-T cannot legally venture on to the road in South Korea because it does not meet certain mandatory criteria, such as withstanding crashes. Suh said South Korea should relax rules for micro cars, exempting them from crash requirements because of their relatively low speeds.

A video demonstrating the prototype has been viewed more than 780,000 times on YouTube. 

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15 Year-Old Jaylen Bledsoe Builds IT Company Now Worth $3.5M

How many people can say they earned their first million before being old enough to drive? Jaylen Bledsoe, 15, of Gazelwood, Mo., is among the lucky few.

The high school sophomore founded his own tech company, which specializes in web design and other IT services, Bledsoe Technologies, at the ripe age of 13 years old. In just over two years the

tech titan managed to expand his small business — run by two people — into a global venture worth $3.5 million, employing 150 contracted workers.

 

Bledsoe credits a web design class, offered as apart of his school’s gifted education program, as the foundation for his business idea. When he’s not busy running a global technology company, you can find Bledsoe partaking in more typical high school roles such as being president of the Student Council and the Parent Teacher Student Association.

In the past, the young CEO has served as the chief technology officer of St. Louis Volunteen, a local program that focuses on promoting teen volunteerism, according to Patch. He was also responsible for bringing vegetarian options to his former middle school’s cafeteria. You know, typical teenage behavior.

“I don’t see many eighth graders do the things that he does but it’s all his doing,” Curtis Bledsoe, Jaylen’s father, told Patch in 2012. “I’m very proud of him.”

Bledsoe’s advice to young entrepreneurs such as himself is simple: take risks. “As a minor, there’s nothing you can do that will shoot you down for too long. You can always jump back up and keep going.”
Bledsoe plans to attend Harvard University before going on to study copyright law. This child is nothing short of impressive.

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John McCain Plays Poker While Colleagues Discuss Bombing Syria

Congress held its first public hearing about U.S. plans for military intervention in Syria on

Tuesday.

At some point during the conversation, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- who has been skeptical about President Barack Obama's proposal for "limited" action in Syria -- was taking a break to play poker on his phone.

McCain has long advocated for military action in Syria, but said earlier on Tuesday that Obama's proposal "might be doomed in the long run." McCain said he will support Obama's request to intervene in Syria if the move would "reverse the situation on the battlefield."

UPDATE: Realizing he'd been caught in the act, McCain tweeted about his poker game:

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Woman Waits 10 Years For Hospital To Return Dead Husband's Heart

Nine years after her husband died unexpectedly in a hospital, Linda Carswell is still fighting to get his heart back.

Jerry Carswell, a state championship-winning high school track coach, died in 2004 while hospitalized for kidney stones. Christus St. Catherine Hospital, where he died, promised a full autopsy, but did not perform toxicology tests that could have determined whether the painkillers Carswell was given had anything to do with his

death.

His heart was also kept by the hospital that conducted the autopsy – something Linda Carswell found out well after her husband's burial.

She sued St. Catherine for medical malpractice and won a nearly $2 million judgment three years ago. The jury found that while St. Catherine did not cause Carswell's death through negligence, it fraudulently got Linda Carswell's permission for an autopsy she found to be incomplete.

A state appeals court in Houston last week reaffirmed much of that judgment. It also lifted a stay the hospital had sought to keep the heart from being turned over to Carswell, according to her attorney, Neil McCabe.

But it's unclear, after nearly a decade of legal battles, when Carswell will be allowed to put the heart and the issue to rest – or why Christus wants to prevent the heart from being turned over.

Christus said in a statement Wednesday that it would appeal the issue of whether it fraudulently got Linda Carswell's permission for the autopsy to the Texas Supreme Court. But Abby Lowe McNeil, a company spokeswoman, said Christus would not file any more motions related to Carswell's heart tissue.

St. Joseph Medical Center, the hospital that conducted the autopsy, said in a statement to Houston television statement KTRK that officials "intend to cooperate fully with the court's decision provided there are no further legal interventions in the case."

That would suggest that Linda Carswell is close to winning her battle. McCabe said he continues to work with St. Joseph's management to finalize a resolution and retrieve the heart.

The heart on its own could not be used to prove that Jerry Carswell died wrongfully, since its location and care likely cannot be fully traced, McCabe said.

Its value to Linda Carswell and her family is strictly emotional. They would like to place his heart in an urn and bury it beside his body.

"As a family we can respectfully bury Jerry and come to some sort of closure that we've done the right thing for the person we love," she told KTRK.

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Meet Couple That Spend Just ONE POUND On Their Wedding

A couple proved a wedding does not need to cost a fortune after ­celebrating their nuptials for a quid.

Artist Georgina Porteous, 36, and singer-songwriter Sid Innes, 39, asked guests to bring food for their picnic reception in a barn behind their home and the minister offered his services for free.

Georgina’s aunt baked the three-tier wedding cake and her dad Harry played jazz on his sax for dance music.

They couldn’t avoid paying £70 for their licence but the only other expense was the bride’s £1 second-hand dress – a far cry from the average £20,000

wedding price tag.

She said: “I don’t see the point in these massive weddings. We didn’t want or need a big, fancy affair.

“We had a ball. The day went beautifully. People said it was the best wedding they have ever been to.”

The couple, of Inverness, plan to spend more on their honeymoon in Berlin, where they got engaged.

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Here Are All The People Who Have Died From A Marijuana Overdose

Just how deadly a killer is marijuana? Here's a GIF showing all of the people who have died after overdosing on pot.

--> Yeah, not a single person has ever died from a weed overdose. We don't have numbers on pandas, but we're guessing it's about the same. According to one frequently cited study, a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times the amount of THC in a joint in order to be at risk of dying.

Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the federal government wouldn't intervene as Colorado and Washington state implement plans for a system of legalized marijuana for adults. The decision opened the floodgates for other states to pursue similar legalization efforts and outraged police groups apparently not excited to see a shift away from the failed war on drugs.

In a joint letter written to Holder on Friday, law enforcement organizations warned that his move would lead to more crime, violence and even death.

While high driving may be a concern, Colorado, Washington and federal authorities have all taken steps to keep people off the road after using marijuana. The two states both have their own restrictions, and Holder said in his statement that the DOJ would still prosecute individuals or entities to prevent "drugged driving."

The police groups also make a number of additional controversial claims that marijuana use itself leads to violent behavior, suicidal thoughts and interest in harder drugs. Scientific studies have not been able to prove this causation conclusively, however, and research has also suggested that THC has significant therapeutic value to patients suffering from cancer, AIDS or glaucoma.

None of this is to say that the nation doesn't struggle with broader issues of drug and alcohol abuse and overdose. Drug policy reformers and activists gathered around the world over the weekend to discuss the overdose epidemic. In 2010, overdoses were responsible for 38,329 deaths. Sixty percent of those were related to prescription drugs. In the same year, a total of 25,692 persons died of alcohol-induced causes, including accidental poisoning and disease from dependent use.

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Rapist Collapsed After Hearing He May Have Gotten HIV From Victim

A convicted rapist collapsed after police told him he may have contracted HIV from the woman he assaulted.

The BBC reports that Richard Thomas, 27, was sentenced last week to five years and four months for raping a woman while she slept. He pleaded guilty to the crime in Liverpool Crown

Court on July 20.

Thomas will find out from test results later this week whether he's contracted the disease.

-->

Thomas "let himself into her home uninvited in the middle of the night and she awoke to find him raping her from behind," the Telegraph reports.

"He was arrested and interviewed and said he had been drinking heavily, taken cocaine and ecstasy and could not recall the incident," prosecutor Harry Pepper said in court, according to the Telegraph.

Thomas' attorney told the court his client had started using cannabis at age 9 and binge drinking at 11, before moving on to cocaine and ecstasy in his early teens, according to the Mirror.

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Armed Robbers Brutally Beaten By Intended Victims

When two would-be robbers spotted their intended victims last week in Charlottsville, Va., they likely believed their caper would end with them sticking up two blindsided men and running off with their valuables.

But Gerald Allen, 18, and Johnny Calderon, 19, ending up being under attack themselves when their supposed-to-be victims turned the tables and began beating on them harder than Jamie Foxx whipped that White man in “Django.”

After the two unidentified men, both believed to be college students, finished beating Allen and Calderon, they detained them and called the cops, according to NBC affiliate W-VIR-TV 29. As you can see, Calderon suffered severe bruising, but he got off lucky. Allen’s right eye is swollen shut.

Both had to be treated at a local hospital before being transported to jail.

Calderon Jr. is facing four charges: two for attempted robbery, one for pointing a firearm and one for using a firearm in the commission of a felony. Allen is facing a pair of attempted robbery charges.

Calderon is scheduled to appear at the General District Court Friday morning for a hearing. Allen is due in court on Oct. 3.

While many may find the would-be victims’ shellacking of the two suspected robbers praiseworthy, the Charlottesville Police Department told NBC 29 that they do not encourage people to take on robbers.

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Marijuana Grower Dies From Booby Trap Set On His Own Property To Protect Plants

File this one under Now What Now? According to Fox News, a New York man died after being nearly decapitated by a booby trap he set to protect marijuana plants on his property.

Daniel R. Ricketts, 50, was identified as the victim in Albany County, New York on Sunday.

Sheriff Craig Apple said,

--> “Ricketts was driving an ATV on his property on Saturday afternoon when he was nearly decapitated after running into a nearly invisible wire that was part of fortifications he made near four large marijuana plants. The wire appeared to be the type used in pianos, but it’s unclear what purpose it served as a security measure. Other components of the booby traps included barbed wire and a leg trap similar to those used to trap coyotes. Alcohol may have been a factor in the accident.”

An investigation is ongoing.

Yikes!

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Woman Tortured And Murdered Husband, Then Boil Him In Pressure Cooker

A woman in China allegedly murdered her husband and boiled his body in a pressure cooker before reportedly handing herself into police.

The accused allegedly drugged her second husband and tortured him for three days by withholding food and water, according to a report on government-backed news portal Anhui News.

It was reported that the man had allegedly abused the woman and her daughter.

After allegedly beating the man to death, the wife reportedly dismembered his body with a saw and boiled parts in a pressure cooker to cover her tracks.

It is not known how she disposed of the cooked flesh.

--> The woman is believed to have turned herself into police due to the psychological stress of the alleged crime, which caused her to lose more than 6kg in weight.

A police officer in Anhui province's Lu'an City, where the man died, confirmed the case to the AFP news agency but declined to give further details.

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Woman Meets Her True Love In A Graveyard

Hopefully, meeting your loved one in a graveyard comes after a long relationship.

In the case of self-proclaimed goth Lauren Anderson, the relationships started in a graveyard. But the morbid meeting was appropriate, given that both were goths growing up in a Connecticut town.

"I lived on one side of the [cemetery] and he lived on the other, and I'd drive by this big house all the time and I'd hear this great music coming out of it,"
Anderson told HuffPost Live on Friday. "Over and over, we missed each other because he would hang out [at the graveyard] with his friends, and I would hang out there with mine."

Eventually, fate pointed its black-polished fingernail at the two of them.

-->

"One day, it was just fireworks," she said. "He had on these striped stockings, and long black hair. He's so perfect."

Anderson, who currently works at Gothic Renaissance, a New York-based boutique store for goths, insists she didn't get into the lifestyle as a way of rebelling against her parents.

Far from it. She comes from a long line of pagans and goths, including her mom, who was writing Anne Rice-inspired fan fiction back in the 1980s.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, Anderson doesn't consider herself to be tormented either -- despite an appearance that some might consider extreme.

"I've been very happy for most of my life," she said. "But I think my creative parts fulfill me."

Anderson's happiness doesn't seem to fade, even when she leaves New York to visit her mom -- who now lives in Indiana -- and the more conservative citizens react to her extreme appearance.

"Some people call me 'anti-christ' and pull their children out of the way," she said. "Whatever. Life's a party."

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Cops Call For Backup To Round Up Goat

Mike Tucker is no stranger to rounding up horses and cows that escape and wind up where they're not supposed to be, but his Monday morning included a different kind of call.

"This would be a first for a goat in the city -- we were a little surprised," said Tucker, who works for Livestock Identification Services Ltd., the company delegated by the province to help round up loose livestock.

The call came about 9 a.m. from Calgary police, who were wrapped up in the most unusual of chases -- one that involved four legs instead of wheels.

--> "They just said they had a goat in Calgary and were having some troubles getting it caught," Tucker said.

Cops were hot on the hooves of the furry fugitive for about 20 minutes, chasing it around Forest Lawn after it was first sighted near 19 Ave. and 37 St. S.E., Insp. Steve Ellefson said.

When Tucker arrived, he loaded the black and white billy goat, which he believes is about two years old, into a trailer.

"There was nothing wrong with it, just a little skittish is all," he said.

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London Driver Says 'Walkie Talkie' Skyscraper Reflections Melted His Car

A cluster of new skyscrapers transforming the London skyline are often blamed for spoiling the view. Now one has been accused of "melting" a car.

A motorist said intense sunlight reflected from the "Walkie Talkie" - one of several flashy towers under construction in The City, London's historic financial district - warped his Jaguar which he had parked across the road.

The skyscraper's developers said they were seeking to rectify the problem which they blamed on the position of the sun at certain times of day. "The phenomenon is caused by the current elevation of the sun in the sky," Land Securities and Canary Wharf said in a statement.

"It currently lasts for approximately two hours per day, with initial modelling suggesting that it will be present for approximately two to three weeks." Three parking bays had

been taken out of service pending a solution, they added.

--> Motorist Martin Lindsay told the BBC he had left his car for an hour opposite the building and returned to find the wing mirror, panels and Jaguar badge had "melted". "You can't believe something like this would happen," he said. "They've got to do something about it."

The 37-storey building at 20 Fenchurch Street, which will feature a viewing deck and "sky gardens" open to the public, has been nicknamed the "Walkie Talkie" after its distinctive shape which appears to expand outwards at the top.

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VIDEO: Man Beats Ex-Girlfriend To Death With Cinder Block, Crushes Her Skull

A 31-year-old man is facing a first-degree murder charge after he beat his ex-girlfriend with a concrete block, police said.

Corey Ladaun Brown, 31, is accused of first-degree murder after he beat his ex-girlfriend with a concrete block, police say.

Corey Ladaun Brown, of Oklahoma City, is being held without bond in the Oklahoma County Jail. Brown is accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Tiffany Sams, 21, of Del City.

Investigators arrested Brown on Thursday night after witnesses reported the attack, which took place the 800 block of Southwest 59th Street.

Faith Carpenter said she was in her living room when she heard a scream.

“I ran outside and looked at my fence and saw this attack,” Carpenter said. “She was on the ground, and he was standing over the top of her and had a cinder block. He was just bashing her with it.”

“When he got through, he just walked away and drove off,” she added.

On Friday, family members gathered at a home in Del City.

“She was a great person,” said Angel Gray, the victim’s younger sister. “She was my best friend. She made everybody smile. She made everybody laugh. She was always there for people.”

Gray said she tried to tell her sister to stay away from Brown.

“He was her on-again, off-again boyfriend,” she added. “He told me he was for real this time. He told me he was going to take care of her and he wasn’t going to beat her anymore.”

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