Model has 6 of her ribs removed to achieve cartoon character look

Former electrician from Sweden and just 25 years old, Pixee Fox, has spent more than $119,200 (£79,160) on surgical procedures to achieve her desired look. She's had six of her lower ribs removed in a bid to shrink her waist to a record breaking 14 inches.

Taxi driver manhandles female passenger

JOHANNESBURG - A video of a taxi driver manhandling a female passenger has gone viral.

According to Facebook page 'Taxi Drivers and Other Sad Stories', the driver tried to pull the woman out of the taxi because her cellphone rang.

In the video, the driver can be seen trying to force the woman out of the vehicle.

He also insults her, calling her a 'b*tch'.

The driver and woman's identities are not revealed, but the page says the taxi was on its way to Sunninghill.

A commentator by the name of Claudia Pienaar on Friday morning said the incident happened a year and a half ago.

She wrote: "This taxi was from town to Sunninghill and the same guy who took a video eventually got involved to help the lady. He was taking a video as evidence, they later opened a case and God knows what happened after. The lady is over this incident, it's been a year and a half since it happened and she's doing well. Moral of the story: No one has right to assault anyone!"

SOurce: MSN News

Oscar ‘had a normal jail experience’

Johannesburg - Oscar Pistorius didn't receive preferential treatment while in jail at the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre in Pretoria.

And the authorities plan to open the facility to prove their case.

“We will start opening the doors of our facilities to allow the media to see that we did not give him preferential treatment,” said Correctional Services acting regional commissioner Mandla Mkabela.

He was speaking at the Gauteng regional 30-year service recognition ceremony on Wednesday morning. Warders from various Correctional Services facilities across the country were given awards.

Mkabela said the department had been on the receiving end of negative publicity from the media, and opening the facility would change the public's perceptions of what prisons did.

“We want people to see what we are doing. People think that Oscar was in a fancy cell while he was here, but he wasn’t; it was a normal cell.

“There are perceptions and myths about the department. Those are just myths,” Mkabela said.

There were numerous claims about the former Paralympian who was serving a five-year sentence after being convicted of culpable homicide for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013.

He is serving the remainder of his term under house arrest.

Beeld newspaper showed a picture of him enjoying his 29th birthday at the weekend with a group of young children, relatives of his aunt and uncle, and their friends.

The State has appealed Pistorius’s conviction, and the outcome of the appeal will be revealed in the next few weeks.

Mkabela said being a prison warder was a difficult calling that went unappreciated and attracted a great deal of negative publicity, and that was one of the reasons it was important for the department to honour its long-serving members.

“What you do is not a simple feat,” Mkabela told the warders. “One has to overlook the challenges that come with being a warder, especially for as long as 30 years.

“Being responsible for convicts and overseeing their rehabilitation to make sure that they go back into society as better people is not an easy task,” Mkabela said.

He added that the department was embarking on a project which would focus on nurturing scarce skills in order for it to improve its services. These skills were attributed to the medical profession, nursing and social workers.

“What you are doing is a scarce skill in itself; what you need is skill, experience and knowledge that cannot be found anywhere else,” he told the warders.

His sentiments were echoed by one of the recipients of the awards, Richard Malebane, who served at a number of Correctional Services centres across the country and is now in a senior position at Kgosi Mampuru.

“The most challenging thing about Correctional Services is that it is dynamic, and one does not stop learning. It has all the professions in one,” Malebane said.

He added that one of the most challenging aspects of his profession was the unpredictability of convicts. “These are humans. We have to deal with them, their families and normal civilians on a daily basis. You have to switch characters between all three of them. But it’s part of the job,” he said.

SOURCE: MSN news

Thieves steal $250m of Nigerian oil

Thieves have stolen nearly $250m (£165m) of petrol from a single pipeline this year, Nigeria's state oil company says. 

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said half a billion litres were taken from the pipeline that runs north-east from Lagos.

Long queues have formed at petrol stations across Nigeria in recent days.

Governments blame pipeline vandalism and theft in the oil sector for fuel shortages and damaging the economy.

An NNPC subsidiary told a Senate committee that "incessant hacking" of the System 2B pipeline had "made the task of providing seamless flow of petroleum products to retail outlets more burdensome".

The pipeline stretches 250km from the financial hub Lagos to the city of Ilorin.

The company said it was working to resolve the issue.

"We have been pushing 35 million litres every day to the market and there's no reason why there shouldn't be fuel," said Esther Nnamdi Ogbue, managing director of the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, a subsidiary.

She blamed "sharp practices" such as hoarding in some areas.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil exporter, but a lack of refining capacity means drivers rely on imports and fuel shortages happen regularly.

In May the country was brought to a virtual standstill after importers shut depots over subsidy payments.

President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to scrap the subsidy scheme, which critics say is rife with corruption, but a previous attempt to stop the payments led to violent mass protests in 2012.

However, in August NNPC managing director Emmanuel Kachikwu said the subsidies were an unsustainable drain on the economy, which has suffered as global oil prices have fallen.

SOURCE: BBC news