Nigeria's Online Blog

Residents of the city of Newburgh, N.Y., are feeling angered — and saddened — over news that they may have fallen for the worst kind of hoax.

Back in April, the local paper ran a story about Jessica Vega, a bride-to-be in her early 20s who had less than a year to live. She said she had acute myeloid leukemia, and she wanted to marry her fiancé before she had to say goodbye to him and their 11-month-old baby girl.

Her story generated an outpouring of sympathy and support from big-hearted locals. They donated a wedding dress, wedding rings, wedding flowers, wedding photos, hair-styling and makeup for the entire bridal party, and a honeymoon in Aruba.

But over Labor Day weekend, those same locals were stunned to learn they may have been tricked. In an article in the Times Herald-Record — the same paper that ran the original piece about Vega — her husband Michael O’Connell alleged that Vega’s cancer diagnosis had been faked.

The newspaper reported that O’Connell said Vega pretended to have terminal leukemia “in order to scam him, everyone they knew and a long list of strangers who heard her story and wanted to help.” The couple is now in the process of divorcing, and O’Connell is pursuing full custody of their now-1-year-old daughter.

Vega denied deliberately tricking anyone. She told the Times Herald-Record that she now doubts the accuracy of her original diagnosis. She said she has a new doctor and has seen her health improve by exercising, eating fresh foods and drinking only water and tea.

‘Never a patient here’
At issue is the trustworthiness of a letter Vega showed a Times Herald-Record reporter back in April to confirm her leukemia diagnosis. That letter appeared to come from a Dr. Dan Costin.

O’Connell said he simply believed Vega when she told him about the cancer diagnosis while they were still dating. He said he didn’t examine the doctor’s letter closely until recently, and he wishes he had looked at it sooner.

With the Times Herald-Record reporter present and listening over speaker phone, O’Connell called Costin’s office and was told that Vega had not been a patient there.

“I can tell you for sure this person was never a patient here,” an office administrator said.

Vega said she would take the reporter with her to see both Dr. Costin and her new doctor about her condition. On the day they were to visit her new doctor, she canceled with the explanation that she had just received her divorce papers.

“I have to meet up wit my lawyer instead hope u understand that settlin my divorce is more important and time consuming than this article,” she wrote in a text message. Over the following week, she contacted the reporter again and mentioned “legal consequences” if the newspaper ran a story about her husband’s allegations.

Vega also said her husband had been physically abusive and her health was actually improving now that they were apart. O’Connell acknowledged an incident when he bit Vega’s elbow to escape her headlock, and another incident when he slapped her during an argument shortly before they separated.

Vega’s mother, Diana Vega, defended her daughter in the Times Herald-Record story. “Jessie would never do something so manipulative,” she said.

Recent hoaxes
Wish Upon a Wedding, a new charity featured on TODAYshow.com in July , grants weddings to people like Vega who say they have terminal illnesses and limited time to live. To avoid being tricked or embarrassed by hoaxes, that organization requires applicants to sign Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) forms giving doctors permission to communicate directly with Wish Upon a Wedding. That way doctors themselves can share clear information about a person’s diagnosis and prognosis.

Cancer hoaxes are not particularly common, but they do happen, and they sometimes result in jail time. To name just a few recent examples:

•Dina Perouty-Leone, a Maryland mother of two teenagers, allegedly lied about having terminal stomach cancer in order to bilk friends and acquaintances out of money. She pleaded guilty to a charge of felony theft in June, and her sentencing is set for October. She faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.

•Ashley Anne Kirilow, a 23-year-old from Ontario, Canada, admitted last month that she shaved her head and eyebrows and plucked out her eyelashes to make herself look like a chemotherapy patient. Kirilow capitalized on her “condition” to run a charity that brought in thousands of dollars in donations. “What I did was wrong,” Kirilow told the Toronto Star. “I was trying to be noticed.” Her parents described her as manipulative and desperate for fame and attention from others.

•Last year Keele Maynor, a Tennessee woman in her late 30s, was charged with theft and forgery after maintaining a ruse for five years about having breast cancer. She collected donations of sick leave and money from co-workers until she resigned from her job with the city of Chattanooga in December 2008. “I started fabricating this story about cancer in 2003 and it has snowballed and finally came to a head,” she wrote in her resignation e-mail message. “I am relieved for two reasons. I don’t have to keep up the charade anymore and I am finally getting some help to figure out why I did this in the first place.”

No fewer than 10 people were feared dead in Lagos State on Tuesday after a fuel tanker truck loaded rammed into other vehicles, causing an inferno. The fire also consumed about 23 vehicles at Adodo junction by Mowo bus stop, Badagry.

The disaster, which is coming two days after a similar one that consumed 17 vehicles and six people in Ibafo, Ogun State, was said to have happened around 4pm on Tuesday.

A version of the cause of the incident revealed that the truck had a break failure and lost control before running into some stationery vehicles parked at a Mechanic Village along the Lagos-Badagri Expressway.

But the Special Assistant to Lagos State Governor on Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, said the truck was trying to negotiate into another side of the road when it fell on some stationery vehicles and spilled its content. The impact, according to him, started the fire.

A witness, Olamide Kazeem, told one of our correspondents on the telephone that the fire spread. “Before you know it, the truck had gone up in flames and within a twinkle of an eye it had affected 23 other vehicles. People there were running helter-skelter and drivers were making a U-turn to avoid being caught in the inferno,” she said.

Some of the Adodo villagers said that some people escaped from their vehicles with various degrees of burns, while an unspecified number of people were not as lucky as they were trapped in the fire and feared dead.

It was gathered that a pregnant woman, identified as Mama Egwu, was badly burnt and was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.

“It is still a mad house here; we don’t know how many people died. But I am sure that some people were not able to run for safety. Some people however escaped. But the good thing was that many of the vehicles affected were the ones parked by the Mechanic Village,” Kazeem said.

The villagers claimed that the men of the Lagos State Fire Service did not arrive at the scene of the inferno until almost an hour after the fire had started.

”Policemen and Customs officials arrived there before the fire fighters. They started rescue operation before the fire service men came,” they said.

The Lagos Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr. Jonas Agwu, who confirmed the incident in an interview with one of our correspondents on the telephone, however, said the fire claimed one life and burnt 23 vehicles parked at the mechanic village.

Agwu said that the driver of the petrol tanker escaped unhurt.

TheLagos State Police spokesman, Mr. Frank Mba, gave the registration number of the tanker as XB 142 UMZ.

“We are yet to determine the circumstance of the accident that caused the inferno, but as I am talking to you now, we have picked one charred body. Rescue operation is still on. Citizens are advised to stay calm as we are fully on ground and on top of the situation,” he said. Mba put the number of the burnt vehicles at 22.

The Adodo inferno is the third of such disasters that have caused by trucks within three weeks.

On Sunday, August 15, at the Otedola Millennium Estate end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, no fewer than 40 people lost their lives. About 25 vehicles were damaged in the inferno.

On Sunday, September 5, it was the same story at Ibafo end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has condemned the planned burning of Qurans on the anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the United States as criticism mounts from Muslims around the world.

Speaking Tuesday at an iftar meal in Washington to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Clinton said she welcomed the concerns.

"I am heartened by the clear, unequivocal condemnation of this disrespectful, disgraceful act that has come from American religious leaders of all faiths ... as well as secular U.S. leaders and opinion makers," she said.

On Wednesday the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan also condemned the Florida church's plan to burn the Quran, the Muslim holy book, as "disrespectful, intolerant and divisive," in a statement.

The statement comes days after the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, warned that the plan could put U.S. troops' lives at risk.

The pastor of the church, Terry Jones, told CNN Tuesday his flock was taking the warning seriously but had not decided to cancel the event, planned for September 11.

Jones, pastor of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, told CNN's "American Morning:"We have firmly made up our mind, but at the same time, we are definitely praying about it."
Later Tuesday, Jones had a response to the statement from Petraeus.

"The general needs to point his finger to radical Islam and tell them to shut up, tell them to stop, tell them that we will not bow our knees to them," Jones said on CNN's "AC360."

"We are burning the book," Jones said. "We are not killing someone. We are not murdering people."

The planned action has drawn sharp criticism from Muslims around the world and from U.S. officials.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday issued a statement saying the U.S. government "in no way condones such acts of disrespect against the religion of Islam, and is deeply concerned about deliberate attempts to offend members of religious or ethnic groups."

It emphasized that it strongly condemned "the offensive messages, which are contrary to U.S. government policy and deeply offensive to Muslims especially during the month of Ramadan."

With about 120,000 U.S. and NATO-led troops still battling al Qaeda and its allies in the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement, Petraeus warned that burning Qurans "is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems -- not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."

Petraeus said he was concerned about the political repercussions of the church's plan.

"Even the rumor that it might take place has sparked demonstrations such as the one that took place in Kabul yesterday," he said. "Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy and accomplishment of the mission would be made more difficult."

Thousands of Indonesians gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sunday to protest the planned Quran burning.

"The burning is not only an insult to the holy Quran, but an insult to Islam and Muslims around the world," said Muhammad Ismail, a spokesman for the hard-line Indonesian Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Jones said his congregation was aware that the action was offensive.

"We realize that this action would indeed offend people, offend the Muslims. I am offended when they burn the flag. I am offended when they burn the Bible. But we feel that the message that we are trying to send is much more important than people being offended."

Jones said Muslims are welcomed in the United States, if they observe the Constitution and don't try to impose Sharia law, or Muslim law. The message, he said, is directed toward the "radical element of Islam."

"Our message is very clear," he said. "It is not to the moderate Muslim. Our message is not a message of hate. Our message is a message of warning to the radical element of Islam, and I think what we see right now around the globe provides exactly what we're talking about," he said.

The center says it was founded in 1986 as a "total concept church for the rich, the poor, the young and the old." Its purpose is to "stand up for righteousness and for the truth of the Bible." It stresses that "Christians must return to the truth and stop hiding."

"We need to speak up against sin and call the people to repentance. Abortion is murder. Homosexuality is sin. We need to call these things what they are and bring the world the true message: that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life," it says on the church's website.

It also emphasizes its dislike of Islam, and on its website, it blog posts an item called "Ten Reasons to Burn a Koran.

"Any religion which would profess anything other than this truth is of the devil. This is why we also take a stand against Islam, which teaches that Jesus is not the Son of God, therefore taking away the saving power of Jesus Christ and leading people straight to Hell," the site says.

One by one, Michiko walked through the legal steps of finalizing her divorce: dividing property, determining child custody and arranging her daughter's college fund. But when it came to settling the heartache over the end of her eight-year marriage to Taka, the legal system had no formal process.

That's when she decided to go through a divorce ceremony.

One in four marriages in Japan now ends in divorce, yet it's still considered a cultural taboo. Increasingly popular ceremonies help some Japanese cope with the country's changing social norms, according to divorce ceremony planner Hiroki Terai.

Michiko's soon-to-be ex-husband, Taka, says the idea was surprising to him. He had never heard of a divorce ceremony when Michiko brought it up.

But when he looked at the brochures on-line -- which explained that the divorce ceremony was like a wedding ceremony, with a different outcome -- he decided some sort of formal closure to their marriage might provide him with emotional closure as well.

Wearing her summer yukata, Michiko meets Taka outside a temple in Tokyo.

"It marks the end of this phase of our lives," says Taka, clad in a simple business suit.

They ask that their last names not be used, but allow CNN to attend the ceremony.

It begins with the couple stepping into separate rickshaws. It's a quiet and solemn walk through the streets.

Walking behind the couple are friends, brought as witnesses.

"I like that you have a lot of time to contemplate this," says Michiko's friend, Isao Yokoyama. "Isn't it better this way than to just split up?"

The rickshaw ride ends at a purposely shabby storefront, marked with the words "Refresh" and "Divorce" outside.

"Thank you very much for coming," says ceremony planner Terai. In a short speech, he explains how Taka and Michiko have grown apart since their marriage in 2002. It is time to say farewell, Terai says.

Then holding a heavy hammer painted green like a frog, Michiko and Taka smash Michiko's diamond and platinum wedding ring. The strong ring doesn't crack, despite the direct hit.

The couple hits the ring six times until finally it is bent beyond repair, and the diamonds have cracked off the ring.

"I feel free," Michiko says, relaxed and smiling for the first time this day. "After I smashed the ring, I feel free."

The feeling's mutual, Taka says. "I feel better than before we did this," he says. "It's over."

This is not just one couple's eccentric move to cope with their divorce. Terai claims his business is booming. He's received thousands of calls and has ceremonies booked for weeks in Japan and Korea.

"There's no mistaking that divorce is a sad process," Terai says. "But I believe that by declaring your new start in life in front of your friends, relatives and family, you draw a clear line. It helps emotionally."

A short reception follows Michiko and Taka's ceremony. Symbolizing their now separate lives, they sit back to back at separate tables. Their party favors are chopsticks, because they are two sticks that are easily pulled apart.

At the end of the day, Taka and Michiko say their thanks to their friends and their farewells to each other.

With a polite bow, they walk off their separate ways.

A Florida pastor told CNN on Tuesday that while his congregation still plans to burn Qurans to protest the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the church is "weighing" its intentions.

Terry Jones, pastor of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, who was interviewed on CNN's "American Morning," said the congregation is taking seriously the warning from the U.S. military that the act could cause problems for American troops.

"We have firmly made up our mind, but at the same time, we are definitely praying about it," Jones said.

Later Tuesday, Jones had a response to a statement from Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, who said the burning of Islam's holy books "could cause significant problems" for American troops overseas. "It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan," Petraeus said in a statement issued Monday.

"The general needs to point his finger to radical Islam and tell them to shut up, tell them to stop, tell them that we will not bow our knees to them," Jones said on CNN's "AC360."

"We are burning the book," Jones said. "We are not killing someone. We are not murdering people."

The planned action has drawn sharp criticism from Muslims around the world and from U.S. officials.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday issued a statement saying the U.S. government "in no way condones such acts of disrespect against the religion of Islam, and is deeply concerned about deliberate attempts to offend members of religious or ethnic groups." It emphasized that it strongly condemned "the offensive messages, which are contrary to U.S. government policy and deeply offensive to Muslims especially during the month of Ramadan."

"Americans from all religious and ethnic backgrounds reject the offensive initiative by this small group in Florida. A great number of American voices are protesting the hurtful statements made by this organization," the embassy said.

With about 120,000 U.S. and NATO-led troops still battling al Qaeda and its allies in the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement, Petraeus warned that burning Qurans "is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems -- not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."

Petraeus said he was concerned about the political repercussions of the church's plan.

"Even the rumor that it might take place has sparked demonstrations such as the one that took place in Kabul yesterday," he said. "Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy and accomplishment of the mission would be made more difficult."

One of Petraeus' deputies, Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, told CNN's "The Situation Room" that the event "has already stirred up a lot of discussion and concern" among Afghans.

"We very much feel that this can jeopardize the safety of our men and women that are serving over here in the country," said Caldwell, the head of NATO efforts to train Afghan security forces.

Caldwell said American troops "are over here to defend the rights of American citizens, and we're not debating the First Amendment rights that people have." But he added, "What I will tell you is that their very actions will in fact jeopardize the safety of the young men and women who are serving in uniform over here and also undermine the very mission that we're trying to accomplish."

"I would hope they would understand that there are second- and third-order effects that will occur that will affect that young man and woman who's out there on point for America, serving their nation today, because of their actions back in the United States," he said.

Thousands of Indonesians gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sunday to protest the planned Quran burning.

"The burning is not only an insult to the holy Quran, but an insult to Islam and Muslims around the world," said Muhammad Ismail, a spokesman for the hard-line Indonesian Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Jones said his congregation is aware that the action is offensive.

"We realize that this action would indeed offend people, offend the Muslims. I am offended when they burn the flag. I am offended when they burn the Bible. But we feel that the message that we are trying to send is much more important than people being offended."

Jones said Muslims are welcomed in the United States, if they observe the Constitution and don't try to impose Sharia law, or Muslim law. The message, he said, is directed toward the "radical element of Islam."

"Our message is very clear," he said. "It is not to the moderate Muslim. Our message is not a message of hate. Our message is a message of warning to the radical element of Islam, and I think what we see right now around the globe provides exactly what we're talking about," he said.

The center says it was founded in 1986 as a "total concept church for the rich, the poor, the young and the old." Its purpose is to "stand up for righteousness and for the truth of the Bible." It stresses that "Christians must return to the truth and stop hiding."

"We need to speak up against sin and call the people to repentance. Abortion is murder. Homosexuality is sin. We need to call these things what they are and bring the world the true message: that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life," it says on the church's website.

It also emphasizes its dislike of Islam, and on its website, it blog posts an item called "Ten Reasons to Burn a Koran.

"Any religion which would profess anything other than this truth is of the devil. This is why we also take a stand against Islam, which teaches that Jesus is not the Son of God, therefore taking away the saving power of Jesus Christ and leading people straight to Hell," the site says.

"It is our vision to go around, to preach and to challenge, and to get the church involved and ready. We must go outside of the walls, and march for righteousness."

Commenting the other day on Jones' critique of Islam, Plemon el-Amin, the imam of an Atlanta, Georgia, mosque, said that his words are "really quite uninformed."

"But in America, there is the freedom to be ignorant," el-Amin said. "The only problem is in the world, many people don't understand that particular freedom. So what he is doing is like shouting fire in a theater, in a world theater, and people are upset."

El-Amin said Jones has boasted of never reading the Quran, so, "He doesn't know that he's going to burn a book that has some of the most beautiful passages about Christ Jesus throughout, as well as Moses, Abraham and all of the prophets he reads about and says he follows in the Bible." But he said the best strategy would be to ignore Jones, "like we do people on corners saying the end of the world is coming."

Other religious organizations have joined with U.S. Muslim groups to oppose the Quran-burning. The National Association of Evangelicals is urging the church to cancel the event, warning that it could cause worldwide tension between the two religions, and Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Hindu leaders in Gainesville have organized a "Gathering for Peace, Understanding and Hope" the night before the scheduled Quran burning.

The U.S. Embassy statement said that in his speech on Islam last year in Cairo, Egypt, President Obama said it is part of his responsibility to fight "negative stereotypes of Islam," and he mentioned interfaith efforts "to counter this kind of ignorance and misinformation."

"And during his recent Iftar speech at the White House, he said: Let me be clear: As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country."

In the CNN interview, Jones was asked about the Christian principle of turning the other cheek -- not acting out in violence or engaging in payback and in deed.

"I think in deed that most of the time, we as Christians are indeed called to turn the other cheek. I believe that most of the time, talk and diplomacy is the correct way. But I always think that once in a while, I think you see that in the Bible, there are incidents where enough is enough and you stand up," Jones said.

An armed Christian organization that had pledged to protect the Dove World Outreach Center withdrew its support from the Quran-burning last week, stating the event "may diminish the work of the Holy Spirit to witness to Muslims."

That group's founder, Shannon Carson, said he agrees with the church's stance on Islam, which he called a cult "that is invading our nation." But he complained that the "liberal media" is using stories about Jones' plans "to distract, divide and enrage the public."

Pretoria — Public Service and Administration Minister, Richard Baloyi, has welcomed the move by unions involved in the public service strike to suspend their industrial action while negotiations over a final settlement continue.

Unions involved in the strike action agreed on Monday that public sector employees would return to work, while consultation on government's last offer was being finalised.

The last offer made by government includes a 7.5 percent salary increment and a R800 monthly housing allowance. Unions have demanded an 8.6 percent increase and a R1000 housing allowance.

"The return to work is a welcome development for the public service and the country in general.

"In the spirit of Working Together, we urge those who are returning to the workplace to ensure that we deliver the services that are so sorely needed by all communities across our country," Baloyi said in a statement.

He said the government remained optimistic that a final position of the unions will soon remove the cloud of doubt and uncertainty that continues to engulf the nation.

"Consultations with labour will continue as government and South Africans at large want to see this impasse resolved as quickly as possible so that service delivery can be accelerated," the minister said.