Important news headlines NatroNews

Former Mexican policeman and his cousin found guilty of helping to hunt down cartel boss using GPS trackers and spy cameras before he was killed in a hail of bullets

• esus Gerardo Ledezma Cepeda, 59, and Jose Luis Cepeda Cortes, 60, found guilty of stalking and conspiracy to commit murder for hire Friday
• Pair led Beltran-Leyva cartel to rival boss Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa
• They used GPS trackers and deer stalking cameras to trace his movements
• In 2013 Chapa was shot in broad daylight while with his wife in Texas
• Jesus Gerardo Ledezma Campano, 32, Cepeda’s son admitted helping track Chapa and testified against his own father
• Said cartel spent $1million on hunt and bought trio luxury cars as a reward

A former Mexican policeman turned cartel scout and his cousin have been found guilty of helping to track down a rival leader before he was killed in a hail of bullets.

Jesus Gerardo Ledezma Cepeda, 59, and Jose Luis Cepeda Cortes, 60, tracked Gulf cartel boss Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa to a wealthy Texas suburb using high-tech spy equipment before he was murdered in broad daylight the town square in 2013.

Cepeda and Cortes, who were working for the Beltran-Leyva cartel, are now facing life in jail after being convicted Friday following a dramatic trial which saw Cepeda’s own son testify against him.

During the case jurors were told of brutal cartel execution methods including one woman who was skinned alive in evidence so harrowing that one had to be excused due to stress.

Jurors were told Cepeda’s involvement with Beltran-Leyva cartel stemmed from his relationship with Rodolfo Villarreal Hernandez, known as ‘El Gato’ or ‘the cat’, the Dallas Morning News reports.

Prosecutors claimed that Cepeda had been part of an organization called Grupo Rudo, or rough group, which was supposed to keep peace with cartels but actually protected Beltran-Leyva.
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DR MAX THE MIND DOCTOR: The best way to stop suicide?

The stark email this week bore a message many people had long hoped they would never read — but feared they one day might.

Sent from the the mental health charity Mind, it explained that Sally Brampton, the fashion editor, writer and journalist, had died.

Though the words were carefully chosen, it was clear she had lost her long battle with depression. She had killed herself at the age of 60.

Sally and I had worked together as judges for Mind’s media awards, and I always found her incredibly kind and thoughtful, generous, witty and warm.

She had the same effect on the countless others she encountered over the years, whether as Editor of Elle magazine, or more latterly as a columnist on this newspaper.

For that reason, many people looking at Sally’s life will be surprised that she had depression: she had a loving family and a hugely successful career. So what was there to be depressed about?

But that’s the thing about depression — it’s the great leveller. Prince or pauper, it can strike anyone. It takes no account of how fabulous your life is supposed to be. It affects people regardless of background, status or wealth. And the sad truth is that depression kills.

Suicide in the UK constitutes nearly 1 per cent of deaths from all causes annually. After road traffic accidents, it is the single biggest killer of young men. Another study found that suicide is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the UK — that is, among women who are either pregnant or have had a baby in the previous few weeks.

Depression destroys lives insidiously, dismantling them piece by piece. With around a quarter of us experiencing it in our lifetimes, and between 5 and 10 per cent suffering from it at any one time, it represents a significant public health issue.

But if you have been struck down by depression, or seen your partner laid low, there is hope, because it is treatable.

The development of ‘talking’ therapies, as well as pharmaceutical alternatives, has meant that the lives of millions of people have been transformed.

But for some, the treatments we have are just not effective enough. Their suffering is compounded by the fact that no one can see the psychological agonies which many describe as being far worse than any physical sensation.

What is often forgotten, too, is that depression doesn’t just affect the sufferer. For those closest to them, it can be heartbreaking to stand by, apparently powerless, and watch it consume the person you love. It’s also tremendously scary. There is something chillingly unpredictable about depression — the way it can strike without apparent warning or trigger. And in the back of people’s mind is the spectre that maybe the depressed person is having suicidal thoughts.

Yet most people shy away from talking about suicide with people suffering from depression. It’s easy to dismiss this as a stigma that mental illness attracts. But I think the reason people don’t talk about it is fear.

They are scared they will say something wrong, will cause upset or make things worse — that talking about suicide will encourage people to go through with it. Actually, the opposite is true. The evidence shows that talking about suicide and discussing it openly reduces the risk of people acting on suicidal thoughts. Talking is actually the enemy of suicide.

For many years, I have worked in Accident & Emergency talking to and assessing suicidal people. At first I was reticent — what if I said something insensitive or stupid? What would I do if they told me what they were thinking of doing?

But, over time, I came to appreciate that there is also something extraordinarily calming about talking about it. Both you and the patient can breathe a sigh of relief — they can finally just be honest about how they feel. Sometimes simply talking about the feeling is enough, as though bringing it out in the light of day diminishes and weakens it.

Suicide is complicated — there are as many reasons why people take their own lives as there are people who do it. But while physical, psychological and social factors can all spark a crisis, fundamentally the feeling that frequently underlies this action is isolation.

My mum was taught this years ago while training to be a Samaritan — that those who are profoundly depressed feel desperately alone, even in a crowded room. That must have been how Sally Brampton felt. But if any good is to come of her loss, I hope it will encourage others whose lives are overshadowed by depression to seek help and to talk about it.

Every A&E department has access to mental health professionals 24 hours a day, every day. You can walk in and ask to speak to someone if you are feeling unsafe. They won’t be afraid to talk about how you feel, and neither should you.

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or go to samaritans.org.

There’s a caveman lurking inside all of us

Hundreds of football fans lined the streets earlier this week to see the Manchester United team bus arrive at the West Ham ground for the last ever match at Upton Park.

But what should have been a celebration turned sour due to the disgraceful scenes that unfolded.

The bus was attacked with bottles and cans, while children ran screaming to safety. The players were unable to get off the coach, and riot police had to be called to bring order to the aggressive mob of West Ham fans that formed. What morons!

What it made me think is that football hooliganism shows how fragile our social fabric really is: how quickly we can descend into violent and antisocial animals.

Anthropologists have long argued that community sports like football have important social functions because they provide a focus for innate tribal instincts. What surprises me is how quickly this urge to belong to a large group can mutate into anger and hostility.

It is well known that among a mass of people it is easier to become detached from our actions, doing things and behaving in ways we would never normally do.

In other words, scratch the thin social veneer and you soon see a much darker reality underneath. This was demonstrated in a chilling study that was conducted in California in 1971 by Dr Philip Zimbardo. It showed how cruel and violent people can be when freed from social conventions.

In the experiment, a group of volunteer students were allocated the role of either prisoner or guard. The guards were told they must keep order and could use any means they could think of to do so, stopping short of inflicting physical harm.

What happened next shocked everyone. Within days, the guards had begun psychologically torturing the prisoners to the extent that the experiment had to be stopped. Despite all the participants having been assessed beforehand as psychologically normal and robust, about a third of the guards had exhibited genuinely sadistic behaviour.

Subsequent repeats of the study have shown very similar outcomes, with the experiments having to be halted prematurely because of cruel or aggressive behaviour.

Social mores and restrictions are there to protect us from our primitive instincts. Glimpses of what can happen when they break down are terrifying.

SATs protesters need to grow up

What an incredible fuss some parents and teachers have been making about SATs.

They’ve protested about the tests, with thousands of parents letting their children take part in a ‘strike’ by keeping them off school for a day. Instead, they treated them to a day of ‘educational fun’ as part of the Let Our Kids Be Kids campaign.

Well, I think these parents should be given 100 lines. The tests measure progress and ensure schools aren’t failing pupils. To hear them complain, you’d think we were sending children down mines, not seeing if their teachers are teaching them properly.

It is not a good thing for the young to presume that if they don’t want to do something they should simply refuse.

You can’t just throw your toys out of the pram and get your own way every time. To me, that’s probably the most useful lesson a child can learn.

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Illegal dumping site bursts into flames in Spain as 75,000 tons of rubber tyres set on fire near Madrid forcing 9,000 people to flee their homes

This is the dramatic moment 75,000 tons of used rubber tyres are burned at an illegal dumping site in the Spanish countryside.

Toxic smoke rose over the Castilla La Mancha fields in Sesena Nuevo, Spain, earlier today, with 9,000 people evacuated from their homes.

Billows of thick black smoke could be seen for 20 miles, with the police at the scene of the ground and a fire and rescue helicopter assessing the situation from above, while spraying water onto the blaze.

Ten teams of firefighters have been battling the flames for more than 10 hours, with little sign of it being brought under control tonight.

People stood from afar to take pictures and videos of the tyres burning at the illegal site.

The dumping site was declared illegal in 2003, but the regional government in Madrid and Castilla La Mancha authorities could not come to an agreement over who had to pay for the removal of the site.

The estimated cost of the potential clean-up and removal was four million euros (£3,150,000).

https://youtu.be/6kdYVdykMn4

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West Australian Premier Colin Barnett says he will lead the Liberals to the next election despite record deficit and disastrous opinion polls

• WA Premier Colin Barnett has denied that his job is at risk
  He remains confident he will lead the party to the March election
  Barnett said that if his party was dissatisfied with him they would tell him
  WA government unveiled an unprecedented $3.9billion deficit for 2016/17
  Newspoll said Labor ahead 54 to 46 per cent in two-party-preferred terms

Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett said he will lead the government to the next state election despite a record deficit and a disastrous result in the latest opinion poll.

The WA government unveiled an unprecedented $3.9billion deficit for 2016/17 in Thursday’s Budget, the with debt expected to hit $40billion in 2018/19.

A Newspoll this week revealed Mr Barnett’s personal popularity had slumped to a record low as Labor extended its lead over the Liberals, but the premier remains confident he will lead the party to the March election.

Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett said he will lead the government to the next state election despite a record deficit and a disastrous result in the latest opinion poll

The Newspoll, which was published in The Australian, shows Labor is ahead of the government by 54 per cent to 46 per cent in two-party-preferred terms.

Labor leader Mark McGowan leads Mr Barnett as preferred premier 46 per cent to 32 per cent with 22 per cent undecided.

But Mr Barnett insisted that if anyone was dissatisfied with his performance they would tell him.

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Black pudding king who created the famous Stornoway variety leaves £3.3million fortune in his will after dying aged 67

Charlie ‘Barley’ Macleod ran the family business with his brother Iain
The pair secured legal protection for the Stornoway brand of black pudding
Macleod left £3.3million to his wife Julia after his death last September

The butcher behind the world famous Stornoway black pudding left a fortune of more than £3.3million in his will.

Charlie ‘Barley’ Macleod, 67, had fought ill health for many years after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and died last September.

He ran the Charles Macleod family business with his brother Iain, working the same 365-acre hill farm that their father Charles had established in 1958 and selling their produce through their butcher shop in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis.

He was responsible for the meteoric rise of the Stornoway black pudding and locals and tourists flocked to his shop to purchase the delicacy.

Mr Macleod was instrumental in getting European protection from fakes of the famous pudding, putting it on the same level as Parma ham and Cornish pasties.

The status, known as Protected Geographical Indication, means it can be described as Stornoway black pudding only if it is produced in the town or parish of Stornoway.

It has now emerged that Mr Macleod had an estate valued at £3,334,072 at the time of his death.

His wealth included his £2.4million share in the family butcher business, Charles Macleod Limited.

He also had a shares portfolio worth more than £150,000, a £17,000 BMW, money held in bank accounts and almost £700,000 worth of property on the Isle of Lewis.

Mr Macleod left his instructions that his entire estate should be passed to his widow Julia.

Born and brought up in the village of Steinish on the outskirts of Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, Mr Macleod went to school on the island before attending the Balmacara Agricultural School.

However he only lasted one year and at the age of 14 gave up school to join the family business

As well as his passion for farming, Mr Macleod was an adrenalin junkie with interests in water skiing, free fall sky diving, wind surfing and scuba diving.

He was also a keen judo player and it was through this sport that he met wife Julia, who he married in January 1975.

Together the couple had three daughters, Lorna, Shona and Ria, and eventually three grandchildren, Charlie junior, Ronnie and Eva, who was born four weeks before his death.

In 2013, after a five-year battle, Mr Macleod helped Stornoway black pudding gain Protected Geographical Indication from the European Commission.

That means its unique blend of beef suet, oatmeal, onions, sheep’s, cow or pig blood, and salt and pepper cannot be copied by producers elsewhere and branded Stornoway Black Pudding.

Following Mr Macleod’s death, Angus MacNeil, MP for the Western Isles, said: ‘He made a huge contribution to island life and helped put one of its iconic emblems on the map. He will be sadly missed.’

The family firm’s working hill farm in a remote part of Lewis was bought by Sir Christopher Geidt, private secretary to the Queen, in 2014.

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‘So this is what you left my house for this morning?’ The moment a groom’s alleged mistress crashes his WEDDING

Video of a couple celebrating holy matrimony with an unexpected visitor was posted to YouTube in March
‘So this is what you left my house for this morning?’ the groom’s alleged paramour can

Weddings call for something old, new, borrowed, and blue, but nowhere in the wedding tradition does it say the groom’s mistress should make a scene during the ceremony.

Video of an American couple celebrating holy matrimony was posted to YouTube in March and it’s been speculated that the loud clapping sounds heard in the background belong to an uninvited party guest who happens to be the groom’s paramour.

The video was later posted to WorldStarHopHop and has since racked up thousands of views. Some skeptical viewers think the scene may have been staged, but if that’s the case a few people may qualify for an Oscar.

‘So this is what you left my house for this morning?’ a woman in the audience asks, indicating she has a romantic relationship with the groom.

‘And the other night?’ she exclaims while clapping extremely loudly.

The groom turns his head to look out into the audience of stunned faces then back at his poor wife whose expression is hidden by her white wedding vail.

Guests in attendance of the very awkward ceremony can be heard gasping.

‘She’s got to go,’ one woman can be heard saying. At another point in the video a woman in red can be seen walking towards the loud guest, presumably to ask her to leave.

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‘It goes straight down into my stomach’: Meet the world’s most unlikely sword-swallower – a five-foot-three inches tall Mormon woman who grew up dreaming of a job on Coney Island

Heather Holliday is one of the world’s best but unlikeliest sword swallowers who grew up as Morman in New York
At the age of 17, Ms Holliday got an internship at Coney Island and soon joined the attraction’s sideshow group
It was then she trained how to swallow up to two feet of steel, as well as neon glass bulbs and fire
Ms Holliday and her performance group LIMBO are performing this week at the Port Douglas Carnivale

Standing at just five-feet-three inches tall, Heather Holliday is turning heads and churning stomachs as one of the youngest sword swallowers in the world.

Ms Holliday, who was raised as a Mormon in New York City, burst into the sideshow performance scene at the age of 17 when she got an internship at the world famous Coney Island Circus Sideshow, according to ABC.

Donning dozens of tattoos and bright, bedazzled costumes, Ms Holliday is now a long way from her Mormon upbringing and entertaining crowds in dozens of countries with her ability to swallow up to two feet of steel and fire.

Heather Holliday (pictured), who was raised as a Morman, is turning heads as one of the youngest sword swallowers in the world and is now bringing her act to Australia
Read more: www.apnewsturk.com