Your speedy update on all the day’s big stories, Wednesday, May 7 2014
Blogger suspected of “poisoning” her sick son.
A US woman who blogged about her sick son could be charged after his death was reportedly found to be from poisoning. Five-year-old Garnett Spears died on 23rd of January at Westchester County Medical Centre where doctors were shocked to find an incredibly high level of salt in his system. Fox News were told by a source that his death is being treated as a homicide from a lethal dose of sodium which was filtering into his body through a feeding tube that he’d had since he was a baby. Garnett’s mother, Lacey Spears (pictured above), has spent years writing about Garnett’s illnesses on her blog Garnett’s Journey. The Fox source suggests that when the boy was hospitalised in January, Ms Spears told a neighbour to destroy the feeding bags in her home. The Journal news have reported that since his death, Ms Spears has told a close friend that she expects she’ll be arrested.
US ready to help Nigeria #bringbackourgirls
The United States has made an offer to send a team of experts into Nigeria in a bid to help find the 200-plus schoolgirls who were kidnapped last week. John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, phoned the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, and made the offer as a result of the recent worldwide outrage over the abductions. According to Jen Psako, a US State Department spokeswoman, Mr Jonathan has accepted the offer. This comes after news this morning that armed men thought to be Boko Haram militants have kidnapped eight more girls, aged 12 to 15, from a village near one of their strongholds in Northeast Nigeria.
First defendant to face "One-punch" law.
The man accused of throwing a fatal punch while at a party in Sydney will be the first person in NSW to be dealt with under the Government's new one-punch laws after his charges were upgraded today. Nursing graduate Raynor Manalad (right), 21, was killed after he was allegedly punched in the head at a birthday party in Rooty Hill last Saturday. Hugh Garth, 21, is facing two additional charges after his appearance in Blacktown Local Court today, including assault causing death while intoxicated. The new one-punch law, introduced in January, outlines that anyone who fatally punches another person while intoxicated will receive 8 years minimum in jail.