The Daily Blog

Nicki Minaj Mourns Murdered Cousin.

It’s a sad day for Nicki Minaj and her family. The rapper’s cousin, Nicholas Telemaque, was murdered in Brooklyn, New York, on Monday and the ‘Super Bass’ singer took to Twitter to express her devastation.

“Lived in Brooklyn his whole life. My precious cousin. My baby. Killed last nite,” Minaj wrote on Twitter.

According to MTV News, police responded to a call in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, at 2:40 a.m. Monday morning and found Telemaque, 27, with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Kings County Hospital.

“My cousin Nicholas. Also goes by Juse, or @brolicalcoholic* Murdered. Last nite. Near his home. Brooklyn,NY,” Minaj also wrote on Twitter, attaching a picture of her fallen cousin.
Minaj spent the holiday weekend in Winnipeg, Canada, performing on tour with Britney Spears.

According to police, no arrests in Telemaque’s death have been made yet.

Cane Corso Mastif Mauls 4-Year-Old Boy In Brooklyn.

A Brooklyn boy was fatally mauled by a family dog Friday in a split-second attack that may have been prevented.

Jayelin Graham, a 4-year-old boy, was killed when the dog, a Cane Corso Mastif, erupted in a violent rage, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. No one seems to know what set off the dog, but apparently the animal was already a known menace in the neighborhood.

“Within a split second it happened,” Calandra Jubeark, the boy’s aunt, told WABC-TV. e “[Saquina Jubeark, the boy’s mother] said, ‘The dog wouldn’t let go.’ It’s painful.”

The dog’s owners maintain the dog did not have a vicious nature, but neighbors seem to disagree, accoridng to ABC.

A man who tried to save the boy from the dog said as soon as the dog had the child in his jaws, there was no hope.

“He was trained to kill,” the man told the Daily News. “He had the boy by his throat. The dog was shaking him. He had no chance.”

According to ABC News the dog apparently belonged to the boy’s mother’s boyfriend.

Jayelin’s other siblings have since been removed from the apartment, though the dog was tranquilized and taken away following the attack.

Charges are yet to have been filed.

China Probes Sale Of ‘Illegal Children’.

A southern Chinese province has begun investigating a report that officials had seized at least 16 babies born in violation of strict family planning rules, sent them to welfare centers and then sold them abroad for adoption.

The children in Longhui county near Hunan province’s Shaoyang city had been taken away by officials since 2005 after their parents were accused of breaching the one-child policy or illegally adopting children, the Caixin Century magazine reported.

The local family planning office then sent the children to local welfare centers, which listed them as being available for adoption, the report said, adding the office could get 1,000 yuan ($154) or more for each child.

Some of the seized children were the sole children of couples who were often away working in the cities, the magazine added.

At least one migrant worker said she had found her daughter had been adopted abroad and was now living in the United States, it said. The welfare centers could receive as much as $3,000 for each child placed in overseas adoption.

“Before 1997, they usually punished us by tearing down our houses for breaching the one-child policy, but after 2000 they began to confiscate our children,” it quoted villager Yuan Chaoren as saying.

The Shaoyang government is now investigating the case, the popular tabloid the Global Times reported on Tuesday, though it quoted one official as denying any involvement in child trafficking.

“When we found illegal birth children, we fined the parents in accordance with the law,” the anonymous official told the newspaper, without elaborating.

Provincial officials, whose promotion is closely linked to the effectiveness of measures to stop people from having more babies, have often been criticized for using violence or coercion to enforce tough family planning policies.

Chen Guangcheng, a blind legal activist, drew international attention when he took on officials over forced abortions in his home province of Shandong and was jailed. He was released in September, more than four years after being convicted of damaging property and disrupting traffic in a protest, and has been held under virtual house arrest in his village ever since.

With a population expected to peak at 1.65 billion in 2033, China has been cautious about dropping its one-child policy that was implemented to spare the country the pressures of feeding and clothing hundreds of millions of additional people.

China already allows a number of exceptions to the policy, and some experts have called for a greater relaxation to tackle the problem of a population aging before it can first become rich.

($1 = 6.494 yuan).

Bullied Middle Schoolers, Paige Moravetz and Haylee Fentress, Take Lives In Suicide Pact.

Family members admit that the signs were there.

After repeatedly indicating that they were bullied and felt ostracized, Paige Moravetz and Haylee Fentress took their lives at a sleepover in what family members believe was a suicide pact.

Moravetz’s cousin Hillary Settle tells the TODAY Show that Fentress had posted a telling status update directed at Moravetz on Facebook shortly before their deaths:

“I’m so nervous and I just want to get it over with. I love you, Paige.”

The two eighth graders from southwestern Minnesota hanged themselves at a sleepover Friday night at Fentress’ house. Her mother discovered their bodies Saturday morning, according to the TODAY Show.

Moravetz, a hockey star remembered for her big smile, and Fentress, a newcomer to Minnesota with a bubbly personality, were best friends.

Still, Fentress had sent her relatives Facebook messages describing how hard it was to have recently moved from Indiana, saying that she was sad and lonely. Those close to her say that she was teased about her weight and her red hair.

LeBron James to Heckler: Lay Off Family.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) — LeBron James asked a heckler to lay off his family during the Miami Heat’s game against the Detroit Pistons.

A fan who says he was seated near the heckler says James was being taunted early in Friday night’s game when he walked over while the Heat were shooting free throws.

The witness says the Miami star told the fan he could say whatever he wanted about James, but: “Don’t say anything about my family — be respectful or we’re going to have a problem.”

A security representative talked to the fan, but he was allowed to stay in his seat.

Switzerland Freezes Assets Tied to Mubarak.

GENEVA - The Swiss government on Friday froze any assets belonging to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak or his family in Switzerland.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lars Knuchel said the order took effect immediately but gave no details on what bank accounts or other assets Mubarak or his family might have in Switzerland.He spoke as pro-democracy demonstrators in Cairo were jubilantly celebrating the announcement that Mubarak has resigned after nearly three decades of authoritarian rule and handed power over to the military.”(The government) wants to avoid any risk of misappropriation of state-owned Egyptian assets,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It also forbid the sale of any assets, especially real estate holdings.Swiss Finance Minister Widmer-Schlumpf was asked earlier this week by Swiss national TV station SF whether Mubarak or his family had any money in Switzerland.

“We’re in the process of clarifying this and we’ll act appropriately,” she said, adding that the Foreign Ministry was investigating the issue.

At the end of 2009, Egyptian deposits in Swiss bank accounts totaled 3.6 billion Swiss francs (about $3.5 billion), according to the Swiss National Bank.

911 Call Came 42 Minutes After Body Found at Busch Mansion.

The woman found dead at the Busch family estate was last seen alive some nine hours before her body was discovered, and it took 42 minutes for someone to call authorities after she was found dead, according to a published report.

Adrienne Nicole Martin, the girlfriend of Busch heir August Busch IV, was found dead at the mansion in the St. Louis suburbs on Dec. 19 at 12:30 p.m., the St. Louis County medical examiner’s office said Friday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

An “unresponsive person” was reported to emergency responders at 1:12 p.m., police said.An aspiring model, Martin, 27, was pronounced dead at 1:26 p.m. She was last seen alive at 3:30 a.m., the medical examiner’s office said, though it’s unclear when she died. The death is under investigation.

The newspaper offered no explanation or comment from authorities on the timing of the 911 call.

A message left today by AOL News for the police department in Frontenac, which has jurisdiction over the case, was not returned. There was nobody available for comment in the St. Louis County Medical Examiner’s office for comment.

Martin had been dating Busch, the former chief executive of Anheuser-Busch, for about a year. Busch, 46, has stayed quiet since the death was reported on Thursday.

Busch and others were in the home when her body was found, the paper said.Martin, a divorced mother of an 8-year-old son, was pursuing a master’s degree in art therapy counseling. Her autopsy was inconclusive, with no signs of trauma or any obvious natural causes of death. Toxicology tests could take six weeks.

armelo Anthony Leaves Nuggets Following Sister’s Death.

Carmelo Anthony has left the Denver Nuggets to be with his family following the death of his sister and will not rejoin the team until after Christmas.

Michelle Anthony died of a pre-existing medical condition Tuesday in Baltimore. She had four children.

“Our entire organization supports Carmelo during this difficult time for him and his family,” Nuggets executive vice president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri said in a statement released by the team. “It is heartbreaking news, particularly during the holiday season.”

Anthony has recently nursed a strained right elbow, sitting out the last two days of practice.

With several key players returning from injury in the near future — including Kenyon Martin (knee) and Chauncey Billups (wrist) — the Nuggets were hoping to see their roster fully intact for the first time this season, perhaps gaining insight into whether it can be a serious championship contender — or if it’d be best to accelerate the rebuilding process by trading Anthony.

Those plans are obviously on hold until Anthony returns. After Wednesday’s game against the Spurs, the Nuggets will travel to Oklahoma City to face the Thunder on Christmas Day before returning to Denver to host the Philadelphia 76ers on Dec. 26.

Elizabeth Edwards’ Family Gathers as Her Cancer Spreads.

Elizabeth Edwards was surrounded by her family and friends in North Carolina late Monday as news came that her terminal cancer had spread to her liver.Elizabeth Edwards, 61, the estranged wife of former presidential contender John Edwards, has battled cancer since 2004. She was diagnosed with breast cancer during the waning weeks of the 2004 presidential election when John Edwards was the vice-presidential nominee for Sen. John Kerry.The news of Elizabeth Edwards’ deterioration was reported by numerous news outlets, including WRAL.com, a website for the Raleigh-Durham area. The website also reported Edwards had recently been hospitalized. Her doctors have said that further treatment would be futile.”Elizabeth has been advised by her doctors that further treatment of her cancer would be unproductive. She is resting at home with family and friends,” the Edwards family says in a statement to PEOPLE.Elizabeth Edwards posted a Facebook message Monday on her personal page to her friends. “I have been sustained throughout my life by three saving graces – my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope,” she wrote. “These graces have carried me through difficult times and they have brought more joy to the good times than I ever could have imagined. The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that.”Since 2004, Edwards has struggled with health and marital issues.John Edwards, who served as North Carolina’s senator from 1999 to 2005, launched a White House run with Elizabeth Edwards by his side shortly after President George W. Bush won re-election in 2004. The family practically lived in Iowa leading up to the 2008 Iowa caucus.

In 2007, the couple announced that Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer had returned after a period of remission, but they vowed to keep campaigning. John Edwards came in third in that contest behind President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.John and Elizabeth Edwards were always the poster couple for the perfect political marriage. That was the case until summer 2008 when allegations of John Edwards’ affair, originally reported in “The National Enquirer” in 2007, bubbled to the mainstream media.In August 2008, John Edwards admitted the affair with Rielle Hunter, who had worked as a video producer in his campaign. Hunter claimed that Edwards was the father of her daughter. Just this past January, John Edwards admitted that he was the father.John and Elizabeth Edwards have three children. Their oldest son, Wade, was killed in a car wreck in 1996.Elizabeth Edwards, an attorney, rose to the occasion after her husband’s marital infidelity was reported. Already an established author from “Saving Graces,” a book about her battle with cancer, Edwards wrote “Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities” in May 2009.In that book, she lashed out at Hunter and wrote that her husband should not have run for president in 2008.For the last several years, Elizabeth Edwards has been a keen activist for women’s health care and cancer. She also opened “The Red Window” a furniture store in downtown Chapel Hill last year.In her Facebook post on Monday, Edwards wrote, “It isn’t possible to put into words the love and gratitude I feel to everyone who has and continues to support and inspire me every day,” she wrote. “To you I simply say: you know. With love, Elizabeth.”

How Much Actual Michael Jackson Is in New Song?

Several members of Michael Jackson’s family are sick to their stomachs over ‘Breaking News,’ a just-released track featuring highly produced vocals that the late icon’s nephews are calling “fake,” “shady” and “not him.”

“I will not support ‘Breaking News’ and a few others [off the album] because it simply is not him,” Taryll Jackson, son of the singer’s brother Tito, wrote on Twitter.

Much of the song features multiple vocal tracks, making it hard to pinpoint where Jackson is, but the opening line has a single, arguably weak and shaky, voice. Listen to It Here
“Everybody wanting a piece of Michael Jackson, reporters stalking the moves of Michael Jackson, just when you thought he was done, he comes to give again,” the lyric goes, over a bouncy drum and guitar line.

Without saying which parts of the song he thinks were altered, Taryll reveals he isn’t alone in believing something’s amiss.

“I KNOW my Uncle’s voice and something’s seriously wrong when you have immediate FAMILY saying it’s not him,” he writes, later adding, “Sounding like Michael Jackson and BEING Michael Jackson are two different things.”

TJ Jackson, another son of Tito’s, calls the track a sham and criticizes Sony for pushing the single, which he claims was not a priority of Michael’s.

“There’s many MJ vocal impersonators. Some better than others. But there is only ONE Michael Jackson. Deceptively merging shady vocals with MJ samples (from prior MJ records) will never fool me. Why they would ignore the obvious, look the other way and rush a suspicious track that was NEVER on my Uncle’s radar is beyond me. I’m disgusted, disappointed and saddened.”

Even Jackson’s sister, LaToya, has weighed in, telling TMZ, “That doesn’t sound like him.”

Responding to the controversy, Sony said in its statement that it had “complete confidence in the results of our extensive research, as well as the accounts of those who were in the studio with Michael, that the vocals on the new album are his own.”