Viral News Trends

John Grieshop/Getty Images It’s a good time to be an elite wide receiver in the National Football League. Last August, Odell Beckham Jr. inked a five-year, $90 million extension with the New York Giants that included almost $41 million guaranteed at signing. After a trade sent him from the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Oakland Raiders , Antonio Brown received a three-year, $50.1 million extension with just over $30 million in guarantees. Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman  reported the Atlanta Falcons are in talks with Julio Jones on an extension worth $20 million per season. Another high-end pass-catcher is entering a contract year—a receiver who, at his best, is on par with the likes of Beckham, Brown and Jones. But after two injury-marred seasons in the past three years, it’s fair to wonder just how much A.J. Green is worth and whether the Cincinnati Bengals are willing to pay it. As Fletcher Page reported for the Cincinnati Enquirer , Bengals owner Mike Brown sa...

David Zalubowski/Associated Press Kristaps Porzingis has been accused of assaulting and raping a woman while a member of the New York Knicks last year, and the Dallas Mavericks reportedly didn’t know the extent of the allegations before trading for him in January. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski previously reported the Knicks informed the Mavericks of the pending rape allegation while finalizing the trade, but two league sources have contradicted that report. “The word that was used was ‘extortion,'” a source told Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News. “The word ‘rape’ was never used, only ‘extortion,'” another source added. According to Tina Moore of the New York Post , the woman reportedly said she discussed a $68,000 hush-money payment from Porzingis but went to the police after not getting paid. The player’s attorney, Roland G. Riopelle, denied the allegations and said federal law enforcement and the NBA were alerted in December “based on the accuser’s extort...

Abuja, Nigeria – On February 3, Khadijah Adamu, a 24-year-old pharmacist in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, told her Twitter followers about a harrowing case of physical abuse, detailing claims of how an ex-boyfriend almost killed her. “ It was a burden that I was carrying around for two years,” Adamu told Al Jazeera. “Talking to people didn’t work, praying didn’t work, nothing worked, and to make matters worse my abuser refused to leave me alone.” Fakhriyyah Hashim, an entrepreneur and development worker in the Nigerian capital Abuja, noticed Adamu’s tweet and replied with empathy, adding the hashtag #ArewaMeToo.   Arewa is the general term used to refer to northern Nigeria , which has a majority Muslim population and a conservative society where issues surrounding sex and sexuality are rarely discussed in public. Soon, young women and men from the north started sharing experiences of rape and abuse on Twitter, using the hashtag. Some tweets even named the alleged abu...

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro is back on the air after a two-week absence following her comments questioning a Muslim congresswoman’s loyalties. “Justice with Judge Jeanine” returned Saturday. The former judge and prosecutor thanked her viewers but didn’t directly discuss her apparent suspension. Pirro asked on-air March 9 whether Rep. Ilhan Omar’s traditional Muslim head covering indicated the Minnesota Democrat followed Islamic religious law that Pirro called “antithetical to the U.S. Constitution.” Pirro later said she’d simply tried to start a debate. She added that being Muslim doesn’t mean a person doesn’t support the Constitution. Fox said at the time it “strongly condemned” Pirro’s comments. The network didn’t explain her subsequent absence, declining to comment on what it called “internal scheduling matters.” A message was sent to a Fox spokeswoman Sunday asking about Pirro’s return. Read More from Viral News Trends https://ift.tt/2uE6gDr

Pope Francis  has joined  Morocco ‘s King Mohammed VI in saying  Jerusalem  should be a “symbol of peaceful coexistence” for Christians, Jews and Muslims on the first day of a visit to the North African country. The spiritual leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics was invited by King Mohammed VI for the sake of “interreligious dialogue”, according to Moroccan authorities. He is expected to celebrate mass at a Rabat stadium with an estimated 10,000 people attending as well as visiting a church-run social services centre and meeting with Catholic priests and other Christian representatives on Sunday. In a joint statement on Saturday, the two leaders said Jerusalem was “common patrimony of humanity and especially the followers of the three monotheistic religions”. “The specific multi-religious character, the spiritual dimension and the particular cultural identity of Jerusalem… must be protected and promoted,” they said in the declaration released by the ...

Police in North Macedonia say they have charged two people with creating fake online profiles of children with special needs and rare diseases and soliciting donations for their treatment abroad. The two people charged with computer fraud were identified only by their initials as M.S., 53, and A.S, 49, in a police statement released Sunday. Local media reported they are brother and sister. Police say the two suspects raised more than 3.5 million denars (about $65,000) in donations for the non-existent children, and spent part of that money on personal purchases. Their bank accounts have been frozen. If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison. Read More from Viral News Trends https://ift.tt/2FNzl5C

Authorities say a police officer fatally shot a man who showed a gun while being chased in woods in Atlanta. Atlanta Police told news outlets the officer was flagged down by someone who heard gunshots around a strip club about 1 a.m. Sunday near Interstate 85 in southwest Atlanta. Police say the officer found the man, who ran into the woods. Authorities say the officer fired his weapon after he saw a gun in the man’s hands. The identities of the man killed and the officer have not been released. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating. Read More from Viral News Trends https://ift.tt/2I3lDxe

A rainstorm swept through southern Nepal on Sunday, leaving at least 25 people dead and hundreds more injured, officials said. Nepal’s Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli in a Twitter message said he received a report of 25 people killed and 400 injured. He said security forces have been alerted. Rescue and helicopters with night vision capabilities were waiting for the weather to clear to help bring the injured from the villages. Government administrator Rajesh Poudel said the number of deaths would likely increase as the storm had hit many villages in the Bara district, located about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of the capital, Kathmandu. He said police and army rescuers were fanned around the district trying to reach the villages, but rescue efforts were difficult at night. The injured were being brought to a hospital by cars and ambulances, but roads in many villages had been blocked by fallen trees and electricity poles. Poudel said most of the deaths and injuries were b...

Watch every March Madness livestream, get live NCAA March Madness scores, schedules and results, an updated NCAA bracket and highlights from every NCAA game. Read More from Viral News Trends https://ift.tt/2WxR8TT

“There’s never been an Arab state here with the capital of Jerusalem,” says Daniel Luria. “There’s never been a Palestinian state here. This talk about Palestine, Palestine … I’ve never heard of anything more absurd.” Luria is the executive director of Ateret Cohanim, a settler organisation working to create a Jewish majority in the city of Jerusalem . Raised in Australia, Luria says Israel is his only home, in spite of only having moved there 25 years ago. He is one of more than 850,000 people residing in Jerusalem. After a peaceful period under Ottoman rule, where Islam, Christianity and Judaism coexisted in relative harmony, the decline of the empire and consequent victory of the British in Palestine during World War I set the stage for the eventual takeover of the city. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Jewish forces captured West Jerusalem as the eastern half became part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan . Almost two decades later, the  1967 Six-Day War would see the Je...

At least seven people were killed and five injured Sunday when a container containing scrap metal exploded in the latest in a series of industrial accidents in eastern China . The early morning blast in the city of Kunshan in Jiangsu province caused a fire that spread to a nearby workshop, the city government said on its microblog. The cause of the explosion is under investigation, it said. China experiences frequent industrial accidents despite orders from the central government, including president and ruling Communist Party leader Xi Jinping to improve safety at factories, power plants and mines, on pain of prosecution. Skirting of safety regulations — sometimes with the collusion of corrupt local officials — is generally given as the cause. In March, 78 people were killed in a blast at a chemical plan in the Jiangsu province city of Yancheng that had numerous safety violations, in one of China’s worst industrial accidents in recent years. A massive crater was formed, windows bl...

Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky is projected to top the first round of Ukraine ‘s presidential election, but his support is well short of the majority needed to win the presidency. According to an exit poll following Sunday’s vote, Zelensky has secured about 30.4 percent, followed by incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, with 17.8 percent. Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was third with 14.2 percent. The poll, which was conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology and the Razumkov Center, was based on nearly 18,000 responses to questioning at some 400 polling places as of 6pm (15:00 GMT), two hours before voting stations closed.  A runoff between the top two candidates in the race will take place on April 21. Speaking to supporters at his campaign headquarters after the exit poll outcome was announced, Zelensky said: “This is just a first step towards a great victory.”  Ukraine election – Comedian more popular than President Porosh...

Tim Burton and Danny Elfman are one of the most prolific pairs in Hollywood. For more than 30 years now, Elfman has provided the soundtrack to Burton’s signature macabre whimsy. Their latest big-screen adventure together, Disney’s live-action Dumbo , ticks all of their usual boxes: a film starring a quirky outsider (check); a fantastical setting (check); a bittersweet, sad tone (check); Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito (check and check). But that doesn’t mean that it’s all smooth sailing for Elfman. In fact, even after all these years of working together, he’d never be so bold to assume he knows what Burton likes. “His mind is a curious and interesting and unpredictable place,” the composer tells MTV News. Speaking to MTV News at a recent press day for the film, Elfman talks about his creative partnership with Burton, how he broke his cardinal rule for Dumbo , and why he picked up a violin at age 18 — a move that, by pure chance, solidified his entire career. MTV News: You and Tim ...

Iranian media says a man has shot dead seven members of his wife’s family in the southwestern city of Dezful. The state-owned IRNA news agency said Sunday the shooter wielded a Kalashnikov rifle killing five men and two women, before shooting himself. The agency reported the shooter survived and is in hospital, but did not release his name. Gun violence is rare in Iran , where citizens are only allowed to own licensed hunting rifles. In January 2017, a man gunned down five people in a rampage in the central Iranian city of Arak. A month earlier a man killed 10 relatives in a remote rural area in the country’s south. Read More from Viral News Trends https://ift.tt/2FEV1Q8

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images If you were looking for a game that was going to be slow, methodical and defensively minded, this probably wasn’t your cup of tea right from the opening tip. Purdue continued to rain threes while Virginia did everything it could—somewhat successfully—to keep pace. The Boilermakers led from the start, but the Cavaliers were never far behind, nipping at the heels of the Big Ten regular-season co-champions. The ACC regular-season co-champions cut into a Purdue lead that once stood at 10 and trailed by just one at the half, 30-29. And after the first possession of the second half, the Cavs took their first lead of the game. And the Cavaliers kept right on going. But it was Purdue’s turn to chase. How? The Boilers simply gave the ball to Carsen Edwards. Everything he touched seemed to turn to gold—or, more accurately, points. After a 7-0 Purdue run, the Boilermakers found themselves back in the lead with four minutes remaining. Back and forth, back and fo...

Saudi political prisoners suffered torture and malnutrition, according to leaked medical reports prepared for King Salman, the Guardian newspaper has reported . The medical reports are understood to have been prepared for the king along with recommendations that include potential pardoning for the prisoners or early release due to health concerns. The medical examinations included in the report are believed to have been conducted in January for up to 60 prisoners as part of an internal review ordered by the king, despite objections by aides of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the Guardian wrote. The report was to be circulated around the royal court, a source told the British newspaper. The conditions of the prisoners as reported in the leaked documents are consistent, the daily said, with several reports that have emerged in recent months involving claims of torture in Saudi prisons. MBS, the kingdom’s de facto leader, is also facing reproach over the murder of Saudi jo...

Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images Jarrett Culver scored 19 points and Matt Mooney added 17 more as No. 3 seed Texas Tech withstood a late rally to beat No. 1 Gonzaga 75-69 on Saturday in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. Red Raiders guard Davide Moretti added 12 points, including two three-pointers in the final four minutes. Tariq Owens pitched in nine points, seven rebounds and five blocks. Rui Hachimura scored 22 points for the 33-4 Bulldogs, who Vegas Insider listed as 5.5-point favorites entering the game. Brandon Clarke added 18 points and 12 rebounds. Neither team led by more than seven points in a wild game punctuated by a frenetic ending. Gonzaga guard Zach Norvell Jr. made a layup to cut the Red Raiders lead to 71-69 with 12 seconds remaining. On the ensuing inbounds play, Bulldogs guard Josh Perkins accidentally knocked the ball from Mooney’s hands as he tried to inbound: Bleacher Report @BleacherReport Perkins with the tech...

A federal judge has dismissed Infowars radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and two of his associates from a lawsuit filed by a man claiming his rights were violated when police arrested him for trying to burn an American flag during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. The lawsuit was filed in 2018 by Gregory Lee Johnson, whose arrest for flag burning at the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas led to a U.S. Supreme Court invalidating state flag-burning laws. Johnson’s suit claims Cleveland police officers lied when they said Johnson set himself on fire and that Jones’ associates lied about being injured during the flag-burning attempt. Judge Solomon Oliver ruled Friday that statements Jones’ associates gave to police are protected and can’t be used in the lawsuit. Read More from Viral News Trends https://ift.tt/2V9cAyj