A Southern Californian has said that he and his partner were taunted, humiliated and subjected to inhumane treatment when they were arrested and jailed after being escorted off a gay cruise in the Caribbean

Dennis Jay Mayer, 53, said that he has no doubt they were arrested in Dominica because they were gay. Police said that it was because they were seen having sex in public on the balcony of their ship cabin. He said that they were not having sex, but were partially clothed. Mayer, a retired deputy sheriff, and his partner of 17 years, John Robert Hart, were released following their guilty plea to indecent exposure. "The total experience was horrendous," he said. "They told us that they did not like us, that they did not like gay people." Dominica is among several Caribbean islands that have laws prohibiting sex between men.

Black males between 16 and 36, though only 2% to 3% of the population, are responsible for a third of all crimes in the United States

In some cities, 40% of all black males are in jail or prison, on probation or parole, or have criminal records. In the United States, the black crime rate is seven times as high as the white rate. White criminals choose black victims in 3% of their crimes, but black criminals choose white victims in 45% of their crimes. From January to June 2008 in New York City, 83% of all identified gun assailants were black and 15% were Hispanics. Together, blacks and Hispanics accounted for 98% of gun assaults in NYC.

Seven black teenagers are facing assault and hate crime charges after attacking a Latino youth as he walked home from school

According to investigators, the 15-year old Hispanic victim was approached by a group of up to 10 male black teenagers who challenged him to a fight. "The suspects surrounded the victim and began punching him while several other juveniles watched," according to Deputy Robbie Royster of the L.A. Co. Sheriff's Dept. The victim fell to the ground while trying to defend himself and the black suspects continued to beat him "by punching and kicking him in the face and head," Royster said. The Latino victim was eventually able to get away, but was later hospitalized for multiple head wounds, including shoe impressions left in his skin. The victim is also undergoing surgery to repair several of his teeth which were kicked out during the attack. Detectives were able to identify the African-American attackers from a video of the assault, which was posted to YouTube. The suspects range in age from 13 to 16 years old and were arrested for "assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury and committing a hate crime," Royster said.

South Africa: 3 young men were accused of theft and beaten and stoned before rubber tires were placed round their necks, further tires were placed on top of them and then set on fire

Two of the men died at the scene, the third died later in hospital. Nelson Mandela's ANC dispatched between 20,000 and 40,000 of their opponents in this manner during their struggle against Apartheid.

Britain: In the 2010 general election the Conservatives won only 16% of the ethnic vote, whilst Labor won the support of 72% of Bangladeshis, 78% of Afro-Caribbeans and 87% of Africans

Thanks to the Labor Party, Britain is well on its way to becoming an Islamic nation.

Dark coloration and male aggressiveness

Peter Frost looks at the possible connection between pigmentation and violence in males.

Black hypocrisy in Britain

Blacks in Britain, like their cousins in the United States, like to turn a blind eye to the criminal activities of their own community.

Nearly 60% of the French say that they distrust youth from the banlieues, France's impoverished, immigrant-dominated suburbs, according to a new survey that has laid bare the country's divisions

A poll conducted by Afev shows that while 75% of the French have a positive opinion of young people, 57% have a negative opinion of youths from impoverished suburbs. Banlieue youths are thought to break the rules, slip into petty crime and are viewed as violent and aggressive. Many banlieue youths are from immigrant backgrounds.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s president and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said that she supports a law that can put homosexuals in prison for a year

Liberia is located in West Africa and bordered by Sierra Leone and Guinea. She made her initial remarks during a joint interview with former British prime minster Tony Blair, who was noticeably uncomfortable. Blair has supported LGBT issues while in office as he promoted laws that recognized civil partnerships. Sirleaf, 73, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her work in campaigning for women’s rights. In 2006, she became Africa’s first female president and was reelected in 2011. In addition to the current law, which says voluntary sodomy is a misdemeanor and is punishable by up to one year in prison, there are two proposed legislations that could give gay Liberians an even harsher punishment. One of the anti-gay laws, which was created by the ex-wife of the former president Charles Taylor, could make same-sex marriage a crime and could sentence gay Liberians up to 10 years in jail. Liberia is one of the many countries in Africa that strongly persecutes its LGBT community. In February 2012, Uganda’s parliament reintroduced a bill that would give the death penalty to gays who are caught having consensual sex. Cameroon, a country in west Central Africa that is bordered by Nigeria and Chad, has also received criticism for its treatment of gays.

A rabbi has been accused of possessing more than 1,000 pornographic images involving children following a four-month investigation that culminated in the search of the man’s home

Rabbi Gabriel Toledo, 50, was arrested at his home on Pennington Avenue. His 22-year-old roommate, who is also charged, had not been apprehended by police and is considered a fugitive. The Passaic County Sheriff’s Office has charged both men with possession of child pornography. The roommate, Joseph Vasquez, also is charged with distribution of child pornography. Toledo has worked at Foremost RAM Caterers in Moonachie, assisting the company in making ensuring its food is glatt kosher, a strict standard for cooking and eating that is rooted in Jewish law. The rules define the kinds of food, particularly meat, that’s permitted to be eaten and how it should be prepared. Toledo does not lead a congregation in the United States or in his native Argentina. He is in the United States on a visa, the sheriff’s office said. Vasquez fled from detectives and is being sought by authorities, including federal immigration officials. Vasquez, who is from Honduras, is in the United States illegally and also is wanted on a federal deportation warrant, according to the sheriff’s office.

Eight people have been arrested in northern Mexico have over the killing of two 10-year-old boys and a woman in what appears to be ritual sacrifices

Prosecutors in Sonora, in the north-west of the country have accused the suspects of belonging to the La Santa Muerte (Holy Death) cult. The victims' blood has been poured round an altar to the idol, which is portrayed as a skeleton holding a scythe and clothed in flowing robes. The cult, which celebrates death, has been growing rapidly in Mexico in the last 20 years, and now has up to two million followers. Jose Larrinaga, spokesman for Sonora state prosecutors, said the most recent killing was earlier in March 2012, while the other two were committed in 2009 and 2010. Their bodies were found at the altar site in the small mining community of Nacozari, 70 miles south of Douglas, Arizona. Investigations were launched after the family of 10-year-old Jesus Octavio Martinez Yanez reported him missing early in March 2012. Larrinaga said the murders took place at a ritual during the night, lit by candles. They sliced open the victims' veins and, while they were still alive, they waited for them to bleed to death and collected the blood in a container. It is believed the unofficial group called The Holy Death currently has some two million followers in Mexico. Many of those arrested belonged to the same family. Silvia Meraz, one of the suspects, and her son, Ramon Palacios, were leaders of the cult, according to prosecutors.

The real Obama

Obama has fanned the flames of hatred in the Trayvon Martin case, and has not said a single critical word about the outrageous actions of the New Black Panthers, who offered a $10,000 bounty on George Zimmerman – the same New Black Panthers on whose behalf Eric Holder quashed a federal criminal prosecution; or of Spike Lee, who tweeted a wrong address for Zimmerman, presumably to facilitate harassment or even murder; or of the many liberals who have posted on the @killzimmerman Twitter feed; or of the many other Democrats and liberals who have indulged in an orgy of hate with respect to Zimmerman. Obama’s interest in the victims of violence is selective: he cares if they look like the hypothetical son he doesn’t have.

Police say that a black Transportation Security Administration manager has been arrested for running a prostitution ring based out of a hotel in Maryland

African-American Bryant Jermaine Livingston was arrested and charged with five counts of prostitution, police said. Police say that officers responded to a prostitution complaint at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Silver Spring. Police say management had observed groups of men and women frequently entering and exiting Livingston's room on multiple occasions in the past. Hotel management and police entered the room Livingston was already in and saw "eleven subjects in the room," police said. Police reportedly said the room was occupied with men and women in various stages of undress. After interviewing everyone in the room, police say one man admitted that he had paid Livingston $100 to enter the hotel room and engage in sexual activities. The TSA said in a statement that Livingston is no longer an employed by them and the "alleged off duty conduct of this individual is unacceptable."

Seneca police have said that they arrested six black men in connection with the beating of a white man outside a restaurant

According to an incident report, police arrived to find a man lying face down in the parking lot. The report said that a woman told police that there were several black men attacking the 32-year-old white man. The man told police that he didn't know what happened, didn't remember coming to the restaurant and didn't know why he was attacked, according to the report. Police have arrested 18-year-old Teryn Robinson, 19-year-old Tray Holland, 20-year-old Justin Alexander, 22-year-old Derick Williams, 25-year-old Kino Jones and 22-year-old Montrez Jones in connection with the attack. Police have said that all six black men were from the Seneca area, and that they were each charged with assault and battery by mob. Police said their investigation determined that the attack may have been racially motivated. They said their findings have been sent to the FBI to determine if it should be investigated as a hate crime under federal law. South Carolina does not have a hate crime law.

Islamic terrorists in Texas

Muslim bar owners in Austin have been arrested for drug smuggling and funding Hezbollah, an Islamic terrorist organization.

The Latino who shot Trayvon Martin is a registered Democrat

George Michael Zimmerman registered as a Democrat in Seminole County, Florida, in August 2002, according to state voter registration documents. It is unclear whether he voted for Barack Obama in 2008. I wonder who he will vote for in 2012?

While Trayvon Martin’s mother accused authorities of smearing her son, her lawyer revealed that she’s moved to trademark slogans that have been popularized amid the outcry over his killing

Sybrina Fulton, the slain teen’s mother, has sought to trademark two phrases: “Justice for Trayvon” and “I Am Trayvon,” attorney Kimra Major-Morris confirmed in an email. The two sayings have become like rallying cries since the 17-year-old was shot to death during an encounter with Hispanic neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. The shooting of the black teen has sparked a national firestorm over race, gun rights and a Florida law that says a person has no duty to retreat once attacked — as Zimmerman insists was the case. The trademark applications said the catch phrases could be used on DVDs and CDs. News of the trademark applications came as Fulton joined with civil rights leaders in accusing the Sanford police department of leaking information about Trayvon’s background in a bid to sully the teen and justify its decision not to charge Zimmerman. Trayvon once got suspended from school after being caught with an empty marijuana baggie. He received another suspension after he was found to be carrying women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that was deemed a possible burglary tool. While the feds continue to investigate the case, the controversy, and media attention it has generated, have fueled online sales of Trayvon-related merchandise.

Spike Lee does a stupid thing

Black filmmaker Spike Lee re-tweeted the address of George Zimmerman to his quarter of a million followers. Except it was the wrong address. It was the address of an elderly Florida couple whose son... William George Zimmerman (no relation to shooter) - lived briefly there in 1995. Now the 70-year-old school cafeteria lunch lady with a heart condition and her 72-year-old husband have been forced to move out of danger into a hotel temporarily after receiving hate mail, threats, harassing visits from reporters and fearful inquiries from neighbors. The woman’s other son Chip Humble said: "It's scary because there are people who aren't mentally right and will take this information and run with it. To endanger people who are innocent because people are angry is not the answer. That's not how we're going to heal. It's not [going] to help the Martin family for someone else to be hurt."

Britain: One in five young South Asians say that women deserve physical punishment if they dishonor their families, a survey has revealed

More evidence that South Asians are not assimilating into British society.

Customs agents at Miami International Airport made a disturbing discovery in a piece of luggage - human remains apparently for use in a Santeria ritual

According to Miami-Dade police spokesman Roy Rutland, agents found two human fetuses in luggage belonging to two women returning from Havana, Cuba. Police say that customs agents spotted one fetus when they X-rayed a clay jar and found the second when they opened the jar. The fetuses were to be delivered to someone in Miami and used in one of the African religions widely practiced in Cuba, such as Santeria. The women reportedly told authorities that they received the jar from a babalao, a Santeria priest, and had no idea what was inside.

San Francisco: An Asian man has been arrested on suspicion of killing five people in a home, leaving a gruesome crime scene that has investigators struggling to identify the victims and determine the causes of death

Binh Thai Luc, 35, has been taken into custody and booked on five counts of murder, police Chief Greg Suhr said. The bodies of the three women and two men were found by a woman with access to the home. The crime scene was so tangled that police couldn't initially determine whether they were dealing with a murder-suicide, or whether a suspect was at large. They also initially thought that at least two of the victims were shot. The victims still have not been identified and police have not been able to determine the exact causes of death or offer a motive for the slayings. Suhr said that 40 investigators were working on the case. Also arrested was Luc's 32-year-old brother, Brian Luc, on unrelated charges of drugs and ammunition possession and violation probation. The home near San Francisco's City College has a thriving immigrant community, largely from Asia. A records search indicates that the owner of the home is Yingxue 'Jess' Lei and her friends and co-workers fear she is among the dead.

Britain: Five-year-old girl gunned down by black gangsters

Thusha Kamaleswaran was caught in the crossfire of a bungled assassination attempt when a stray bullet hit her in the chest in Stockwell, south London. She twice went into cardiac arrest as paramedics frantically battled to save her. Thusha will remain paralysed for life. Now, three members of a notorious black street gang are facing years behind bars for the attack. Nathaniel Grant, 21, Kazeem Kolawole, 19, and Anthony McCalla, 20, were involved in a tit-for-tat gang feud that was caught on CCTV when it exploded. The bicycling attackers had chased a rival gang member into the store and circled in the street outside before Grant fired two shots from a silver semi-automatic pistol through the front door. Roshan Selvakumar, 35, who lived upstairs and was buying groceries, was hit in the face by the second shot, but miraculously escaped serious injury - though he still has part of the bullet lodged in his skull. The attackers were members of the infamous black Brixton-based GAS gang - short for Guns And Shanks - and were hunting youths from the rival ABM - or All 'Bout Money - gang, based in neighboring Stockwell. A jury convicted them of wounding their two victims with intent and the attempted murder of rival gang member Roshaun Bryan.

Black graduate student has his dissertation written for him by a white professor

Just one more example of how affirmative action is destroying our educational system.

Black voters are among the leading opponents of gay marriage

African-American voters are solidly opposed to gay marriage. California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage passed in 2008 thanks to overwhelming black support; 70% backed it, according to exit polls. Recent gay marriage legislation in Maryland drew opposition from leading Democratic African-American legislators in the state. The same ministers organizing get-out-the-vote efforts in black churches for Obama are also railing against gay marriage.

Black males between the ages of 14 and 24 were seven times more likely to die of homicide in 2007 than white and Hispanic males of the same age group combined

The danger they face comes overwhelmingly from other black males, whose homicide offending rate in the 14 to 24 age category was nearly ten times higher than that of young white and Hispanic males combined. (The federal government’s crime data puts Hispanics and whites in a single category of “white,” thus overstating the non-Hispanic white offending and victimization rates). Most homicides involve perpetrators and victims of the same race, but the chance of a black being killed by a white or Hispanic is much lower than the chance that a white or Hispanic will be killed by a black. Seventeen percent of what the FBI calls “white” homicide victims in 2009 were killed by blacks, compared to 8% of black homicide victims who were killed by “whites.” There were two and a half times as many white and Hispanic victims of black killers in 2009 as there were black victims of white and Hispanic killers, even though the black population is one-sixth that of whites and Hispanics combined. If Hispanics were removed from the category of “white” killers of blacks, the percentage of blacks killed by non-Hispanic whites would plummet, since a significant percentage of what the FBI calls “white”-on-black killings represent gang warfare between Hispanic and black gangs. Blacks commit 80% of all shootings in New York City — as reported by the victims of and witnesses to those shootings — though they are but 23% of the population; whites commit 1.4% of all shootings, though they are 35% of the population. Add Hispanic shootings to the black tally, and you account for 98% of all of the city’s gun violence. In New York, as in big cities across the country, the face of violence is overwhelmingly black and Hispanic.

The black teenager on trial for killing two British tourists in Florida admitted that he was worried he would be tied to the murders after police found bullets in his home

African-American Shawn Tyson was recorded on a phone call from prison to his half brother saying: "They said they found the bullets. That's what I'm saying could f*** me up." He made the call the day after he was held for the murders of James Cooper and James Kouzaris. The black killer is said to have murdered the pair after they drunkenly stumbled into the rundown Newtown neighbourhood of Sarasota. He forced the terrified pair to pull down their trousers before firing a volley of shots. Tyson is accused of going to rob the best friends in April 2011, and then killing them when they said they did not have any money. A court in Sarasota heard that when police searched his home they found two .22 bullets on his bedroom floor. Cooper, 25, and Kouzaris, 24, were shot dead by bullets fired from a .22 revolver.

Toronto: A local bookstore has sold out of a controversial marriage guide that advises Muslim men on how to beat their wives

The 160-page book, published by Idara Impex in New Delhi, India, is written by Hazrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, who’s described in the book’s foreword as a prolific writer on almost every topic of Islamic learning. The store’s manager, who didn’t give his name, said that the book had been sold out for some time, and the store’s owner, whom the manager identified as Shamim Ahmad, refused to comment. It wasn’t clear whether the shop has ordered more copies of the book, but it’s available at online Islamic bookstores and even through eBay. In the book’s opening pages, it is written that “it might be necessary to restrain her with strength or even to threaten her.” Later, its author advises that “the husband should treat the wife with kindness and love, even if she tends to be stupid and slow sometimes.” Page 45 contains the rights of the husband, which include his wife’s inability to leave “his house without his permission,” and that his wife must “fulfil his desires” and “not allow herself to be untidy ... but should beautify herself for him ... ” In terms of physical punishment, the book advises that a husband may scold her, “beat by hand or stick,” withhold money from her or “pull (her) by the ears,” but should “refrain from beating her excessively.” Male dominance over women has been making headlines for some time, with the recent lengthy trial and conviction of the Shafia family. Mohammad Shafia, 59, his second wife, Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son, Hamed, 21, were each convicted in January 2012 on four counts of first-degree murder in what was characterized as an honour killing of four female family members as punishment for disobedience. They were handed life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years. Shafia’s three daughters and his first wife were found drowned in a car at the bottom of the Rideau Canal in Kingston, Ontario, in June 2009.

Mauritania, Africa: An estimated 10% to 20% of the population lives in slavery

Here is how one African slave owner treated his slaves:

Moulkheir Mint Yarba returned from a day of tending her master’s goats out on the Sahara Desert to find something unimaginable: Her baby girl, barely old enough to crawl, had been left outdoors to die. The usually stoic mother — whose jet-black eyes and cardboard hands carry decades of sadness — wept when she saw her child’s lifeless face, eyes open and covered in ants, resting in the orange sands of the Mauritanian desert. The master who raped Moulkheir to produce the child wanted to punish his slave. He told her she would work faster without the child on her back. Trying to pull herself together, Moulkheir asked if she could take a break to give her daughter a proper burial. Her master’s reply: Get back to work. “Her soul is a dog’s soul,” she recalls him saying.

Murders surveyed between 1974 and 2004 show that 52% of the offenders were black, while 48% were white or Hispanic

Of the victims, 51% were white or Hispanic, 47% were black. In that period, 86% of white or Hispanic murders had white or Hispanic offenders, and 94% of black murders had black offenders. About 13% of the population is black, while about 80% is white or Hispanic.

Whitney Houston was a chronic cocaine user who had the drug in her system when she drowned in a hotel bathtub, coroner's officials said after releasing autopsy findings

Toxicology results also showed that she had marijuana, Xanax, the muscle relaxant Flexeril, and the allergy medication Benadryl in her system. The black singer also had buildup of plaque in her arteries that can restrict blood flow. Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said the condition is common in drug users.

A black mother faces life in prison for starving her daughter to death and dumping her body in the trash because the baby didn't fit in with the rest of the family

Tania Coleman, 21, has been convicted of first-degree murder in Erie, Pennsylvania for the demise of her 14-month-old child, whose decomposed body was found in a suitcase on the street. Coleman's child Alayja was deprived of food and drink because she was considered the family runt. The young girl was considered a problem for Coleman, who neglected the baby because Alayja did not share the same father as her two other daughters. Coleman intentionally starved the girl because Xavier Hollamon, the father of the woman's two other daughters, did not want Alayja to belong to the family and didn't like that she was small and couldn't walk.

9 Asian gang members and associates have been charged in a sexual attack on a 14-year-old girl who was forced back inside an abandoned house and raped after trying to leave a party

The girl and her friend were picked up at school by one of the men and lured to a party with members of the TB22, or True Blood 22, street gang. According to a criminal complaint, the girl wanted to leave the party at the abandoned house but was pulled from a car and carried back inside and subsequently raped. Kong Meng Vang, 38; Mitchell Teng Yang, 22; Vang Tou Ger Vue, 19; and Van Chai Xiong, 18, were charged with 24-year-old Mang Yang in the assault. Four juveniles, Jim Her, 17; Shaileng Shong Lor, 16; Xou Yang, 16; and a fourth not immediately named because he is 15, were also charged. According to the complaint, Yang told police he knew the others planned to rape the girl and that it is the gang's intent every time they get girls to a party with them to get them drunk and rape them. They each face four counts: aiding and abetting first-degree sexual conduct, conspiracy to commit first-degree sexual conduct, kidnapping someone under age 16, and committing a crime for the benefit of a gang.

Asians are the fastest growing racial group according to a recent report released by the U.S. Census Bureau analyzing 2000 and 2010 census figures

The U.S. population identifying as Asian alone or in combination with another racial group grew by 45.6% from 2000 to 2010, according to the report by the U.S. Census Bureau. The Asian population increased four times faster than the total U.S. population, which grew by 9.7% during the past decade. That trend was also reflected on a state-by-state basis with the Asian population growing by at least 30% in 49 states. Hawaii was the only state that did not experience a similar rate of growth, with an 11% increase. Yet Asians already make up 57% of the total population in Hawaii. Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina, North Dakota and Georgia represented the top five states with the most growth. In cities with a population of 100,000 or more, Honolulu had the greatest proportion of people who identified as Asian (68%) followed by nine California cities. New York, meanwhile, represents the largest concentration of Asians with 1.1 million people. Nationwide, census respondents who identify as Chinese represent the largest Asian group followed by Filipinos and Asian Indians. Among Asian groups, people identifying as Bangladeshi and Pakistani had some of the strongest growth, doubling in size over the past decade, says Marita Etcubañez of the Asian American Justice Center who contributed to a report analyzing census figures. "The Asian American population is one that is 60% foreign-born, which demonstrates that immigration to the U.S. continues to contribute to our growth," said Etcubañez, "Nearly one in three of the 9.2 million Asian American foreign-born entered the United States between 2000 and 2009. Some groups are more recent arrivals to the United States. Roughly seven in 10 Malaysian, Bangladeshi, Indian, and Taiwanese Americans were born abroad, and more than three out of four Sri Lankan Americans were born abroad." The Asian population is up 60% in the DC-metro region, with many Asian groups choosing to live in D.C. suburbs. In Virginia, Indians make up the largest group of Asians there while Filipinos are the largest Asian group in two Maryland suburbs. The Census Bureau reports that counties experiencing the fastest growth were in the Midwest and the South with the Asian population growing in some counties by 200%.

While Hispanics and Asians saw their home ownership rates fall during the bust, both groups had higher ownership rates in 2011 than in 2001

Some 48.3% of blacks owned their own home in 2001, a figure that crept up to 49.6% by 2005. But six years later, it plummeted to 44.6%. Whites, who saw their home ownership rate creep up 1.6 percentage points to 76.2% mid-decade, fell back to just below their 2001 levels.

Kansas City: Black and Hispanic students in area schools are far less likely than white students to be enrolled in gifted programs or accelerated into early algebra classes

Furthermore, black and Hispanic students are more likely to be held back a grade, and black students in particular are far more likely to be sent to in-school or out-of-school suspension. In Kansas, in the area’s five largest districts, black and Hispanic students made up 28.4% of the total enrollment, but represented just 7.2% of the students in gifted programs and 10.3% of the students in early algebra. However, they made up 64% of the students who were held back to repeat a grade, 50.5% of the students sent to in-school suspension and 63.4% of the students sent to out-of-school suspension.

Data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that tuberculosis (TB) rates are several times higher among certain racial/ethnic minorities than among whites

TB rates are 7 times higher for Hispanics, 8 times higher for blacks, and 25 times higher for Asians than for whites. "Asians now surpass Hispanics as the racial/ethnic group with the largest number of TB cases," states a CDC news release. In addition, the TB rate for foreign-born persons was 12 times higher than that for those born in the United States.

Hispanics and Asians suffered a lower rate of job loss in the recession and enjoyed a faster rate of growth during the recovery than their black and white counterparts

Hispanics experienced only a 2.4% loss in employment during the Great Recession, followed by a 6.5% gain during the recovery, according to a new report from the Pew Hispanic Center. Asians had a similar experience, with a 2.8% job loss and a 6.8% gain. Their employment levels are higher now than just before the start of the Great Recession in December 2007. The picture, however, looks very different for whites and blacks. Whites suffered a 5.9% change in employment during the recession, but only a 1.1% job gain afterward. Blacks saw a 7% decline in employment and a 2.2% gain. One reason for the vast differences is the swift growth in the immigrant population. Immigrants - many of whom are Asian or Hispanic - have enjoyed a faster rate of employment growth than native-born workers. Each group still suffers from a jobs gap - the shortfall in employment relative to population. Blacks suffer from the greatest gap: about 12% or 2 million people. The gap for whites is more than 7%, or 7 million, while for Hispanics, it is nearly 6%, or more than 1 million. Asians' gap is 5% or less than a half-million people.

France: Algerian Muslim killed at least seven individuals including three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school, as well as three members of the French armed forces

Mohammed Merah, the 23-year-old self-proclaimed member of al-Qaida, was killed after a 30 hour standoff with an elite police tactical unit in Toulouse France.

An 85-year-old woman was sexually assaulted and battered to death by a black home invader who also shot her 90-year-old husband in the face with a BB gun

African-American Tyrone Dale David Woodfork, 20, was arrested a day after the attack and charged with first-degree murder, burglary, assault with a dangerous weapon and two complaints of armed robbery.

Britain: Woman died after Muslim nurse refused to help as he was praying

Alzheimer's sufferer Dorothy Griffiths, 87, was found sitting down after staff heard a bang and a carer went to the office for help to lift her. But agency nurse Abdul Bhutto, who was in charge, said they would have to wait. Carer Zoe Shaw told the Sheffield hearing: "It took between five and ten minutes because he was praying upstairs in the office on his prayer mat. A staff member told me we had to wait for him to finish." An ambulance was not called for nearly four hours after Griffiths fell from bed and cut her head and suffered a gash to her hip at the privately-run Valley Park Nursing Home in Wombwell, near Barnsley. She died later in hospital. Bhutto failed to appear at the inquest and a summons had to be issued for him to attend the resumed hearing later in the year.

The number of children who count English as their mother tongue are now in the minority at more than 1,600 schools across England

The new figures show that close to one million children who now attend schools in England do not have English as their first language at home - with the multicultural effects of migration now showing in the nation's classrooms. And the amount of schools with a majority of pupils who do not class English at their home language is steadily increasing by one a week. There are 97 schools where children with English as their first language are in such a minority that they make up less than one in twenty pupils.

Hispanic with Jewish last name kills black teen

Hispanic neighborhood watch leader George Zimmerman killed 17-year-old African-American Trayvon Martin near his home in a gated community in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman said that he was acting in self-defense. However, according to police, Martin was unarmed, carrying a bag of Skittles candy and an iced tea.

An arsonist’s attack on a Shiite mosque in a Brussels suburb that left its 46-year-old imam dead provoked shock and grief among Muslims in Belgium was due to tensions between the Shiite and Sunni communities

The victim, identified as Abdallah Dadou, a father of four, died while attempting to extinguish the blaze, which was set at the mosque in the Brussels suburb of Anderlect. Earlier a man who identified himself as a Muslim had approached the building carrying an axe, a knife and flammable liquid that he spread in the mosque, setting fire to it, officials said. The mosque was heavily damaged. Joëlle Milquet, Belgium’s interior minister, condemned the attack saying it was due to tensions between Sunnis and Shiites. Sunnis comprise the overwhelming majority among immigrant Muslims in Brussels. The suspect had declared himself to be a Muslim, had given several identities and appeared to be in his thirties but did not have any documents to prove he was Belgian or legally in Belgium. A mosque official, Azzedine Laghmich, said that the attacker was a Sunni who had screamed Sunni slogans.

A Muslim entered a mosque in northern France and repeatedly beat two elderly men with a baty, killing one and badly injuring the other

The assailant identified only as “Seddik” — his first name — carried out the attack in the tiny Ennour mosque in the city of Arras shortly after afternoon prayers. A local police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of office policy, said that the suspect lived in Arras, was in his 30s, and had a police record for violence. The attacker used a heavy self-styled stick, the police official said. Several worshippers pounced on the assailant and subdued him until police arrived, and he was being held in custody, the official said, adding that one victim had been killed and the other was hospitalized in critical condition. The attacker was a regular worshipper at the mosque. France is home to Western Europe’s largest Muslim community — estimated to be about 5 million people. Many trace their roots to north and west Africa.

A Hispanic captured in Mexico and convicted of the 2005 rape and kidnapping of a 9-year-old Ohio girl has been sentenced to multiple life prison sentences and designated a sexual predator in southwest Ohio

Alfredo Lopez Cruz was sentenced in Hamilton, about 35 miles north of Cincinnati. A Butler County jury had found him guilty of one count of kidnapping and four counts of rape. The case raised tensions in 2005 and led to unrest in the racially diverse neighborhood where the crime occurred. A Butler County Common Pleas judge sentenced Lopez Cruz to three consecutive life sentences with no eligibility for parole for at least 10 years on each sentence for three rape counts. The judge also sentenced him to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for at least 10 years on the fourth rape count, with that sentence to be served concurrently, county prosecutor Michael Gmoser said. The kidnapping conviction was merged with the rape counts for sentencing purposes, the prosecutor said. The now-teenage white female testified that Lopez Cruz grabbed her off her bicycle, took her inside his house and repeatedly sexually assaulted her. She said that he hit her in the face and she ran home naked after he fell asleep. Lopez Cruz fled the country before he could be indicted, but Mexican and U.S. authorities worked together to take him into custody and move him back to Ohio.

A Massachusetts school principal has enraged the local community by renaming St Patrick’s Day ‘O’Green Day’ in an effort to encourage diversity and remove the Catholic element

Irish American parents and many others are dismayed by the actions of Lisa Curtin, herself an Irish American, at the Soule Road School in Wilbraham, Mass. Principal Curtin decided to rename Ireland’s national day in an effort to be inclusive and diverse and remove the religious factor. She says that she took the action to change the name to ease discomfort that some students might have in celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Principal Curtin also rebranded Valentine’s Day, also named after a saint as Caring and Kindness Day. Parents have already called the decision stupid and illogical. Other parents, who say that Curtin’s heart is in the right place, believe her latest actions are political correctness gone too far.

South Asian found guilty of anti-gay hate crime

The conviction of Indian student Dharun Ravi in the webcam spying case has highlighted the homophobia that is prevalent among South Asians. On September 22, 2010, Tyler Clementi (Ravi's roommate) jumped off the George Washington Bridge days after learning that his same-sex encounter was captured and viewed by Ravi and his friends at Rutgers University.

Obama’s budget would pile up an additional $3.5 trillion in debt over the next 10 years and shows the government’s trust funds running out of money in 2020, Congress’s official non-partisan scorekeeper has said

In 2012 alone Obama’s budget would leave a $1.3 trillion deficit — $82 billion worse than if none of his policies were enacted. Over the next ten years the deficit would dip to less than a half-trillion dollars in 2017, but would rise again in the later years. By 2022, a decade from now, the federal government would spend $5.6 trillion and take in $4.9 trillion in revenue — both figures far outstripping today’s levels. CBO’s analysis also shows that the government’s combined trust funds, including the Social Security trust funds and the cash flow of the Postal Service, will begin running deficits in 2020. CBO says that Obama’s budget deepens the deficit every year for the 10-year window the agency examined.

A day after he was arraigned on carjacking charges, a Hispanic is back behind bars after police say he escaped court in handcuffs and carjacked a second person

Twenty-five-year-old Adriano Ortiz-Columbo managed to leave the court house after his arraignment on charges that include carjacking, assault and battery and failure to stop for police. Police say that he walked across the street and swiped an SUV from the Autozone parking lot. Officers tracked him down a short time later. He was hiding underneath a trailer when they rearrested him. Ortiz-Columbo has been arraigned on a new round of charges. He is being held without bail. Police say that because of his attempted escape and other charges, the Latino could be looking at a lengthy prison sentence.

Blacks, whites and cancer

African-Americans are more likely than whites to die from oral and prostate cancer.

Angry Moroccans are demanding a change to the country's strict Islamic penal code after a 16-year-old girl killed herself after being forced to marry her rapist

An online petition, a Facebook page and countless tweets expressed horror over the suicide of Amina Filali, who swallowed rat poison in protest at her marriage to the man who raped her a year earlier. Article 475 of the Moroccan penal code allows for the kidnapper of a minor to marry his victim to escape prosecution, and it has been used to justify a traditional practice of making a rapist marry his victim to preserve the honour of the woman's family. The victim's father said that it was the court officials who suggested from the beginning the marriage option when they reported the rape. In Islamic societies, the loss of a woman's virginity outside of wedlock is a huge stain on the honor of the family. In many parts of the Middle East, there is a tradition whereby a rapist can escape prosecution if he marries his victim, thereby restoring her honor. In cases of rape, the burden of proof is often on the victim and if she can't prove she was attacked, a woman risks being prosecuted for debauchery. Legislation outlawing all forms of violence against women, including rape within marriage, has been stuck in the government since 2006.

White woman killed by Muslim boyfriend in Britain

Laura Wilson was just 17 years old — a happy but headstrong girl whose love story across the racial divide would have a tragic ending. Laura’s South Asian Muslim boyfriend, Ashtiaq Ashgar, also 17, was born in Britain but when Laura challenged his family’s traditional cultural values by confronting them with details of their relationship, she had to be silenced. One night in October 2010, Laura was lured to the banks of a canal in Rotherham in South Yorkshire, where Ashtiaq attacked her before throwing her into the water. He was subsequently arrested and found guilty of Laura’s murder and sentenced to 17 years in prison. So does this mean that Laura was the first white victim of an honor killing in Britain? Margaret Wilson has never spoken publicly before, but she said she is convinced that her daughter was murdered because she challenged the code of honor which some immigrant communities still follow in Britain. In south Asian and Middle Eastern communities, controlling the behavior of women is seen as key to the family’s honor. Behind closed doors, beatings, kidnap, forced imprisonment, rape and even murder are being committed in the name of honor. The British government admits that it does not know the true scale of the abuse. The latest survey of police statistics show that 2,823 honour crimes were reported in 2010. But a quarter of police forces could not provide the figures and many crimes go unreported, meaning that the real tally is much higher. Laura Wilson’s murder had the brutal hallmarks of an honour killing. She lived in Ferham Park, a South Asian and white community in Rotherham. Although only a teenager, Laura already had a baby by an Asian man, Ishaq ‘Zac’ Hussein, a 20-year-old. However, he refused to recognise the child and Laura was really in love with his friend, Ashtiaq Ashgar. But stung by Zac’s rejection of her and their child, Laura decided to confront the men’s families and told them that she’d had sexual relations with both men. Sheffield police believe that this was the trigger for a plan to kill Laura. Detective Superintendent Mick Mason said that Laura’s decision to go round to the families and to confront them was not welcomed in the Pakistani community. Ashtiaq texted her three days after she confronted the families. He had asked her to meet him by the canal. Police believe that Ashtiaq began a frenzied knife attack on the girl before throwing her, badly wounded, into the canal. The two men were arrested and tried for her murder. The pathologist in court revealed that Laura had been stabbed in the top of the head repeatedly as she tried to struggle out of the water. Laura’s tragic case is made unusual by the colour of her skin — but her experiences are mirrored by those of young south Asian women who fall foul of their families’ sense of honor. The suicide rate among women of south Asian descent is three times the British national average as many women take what they see as the only way out of abusive family situations — by killing themselves.

An orthodox rabbi who refused to testify before a federal grand jury, saying that his religious beliefs prohibit informing on fellow Jews, has been jailed by a District Court judge for contempt of court

Moshe Zigelman, a 64-year-old Hasidic rabbi, was ordered to report to a federal detention center in Brooklyn. Until he chooses to testify, he will remain behind bars up to a maximum of 18 months, according to federal prosecutors. Zigelman has previously pleaded guilty and served a prison sentence for his role in a tax-evasion scheme by his Brooklyn-based orthodox sect, Spinka. After his release, he was subpoenaed to testify before a Los Angeles grand jury continuing its probe into the scheme. Citing an ancient Jewish principle, Zigelman refused to testify, telling a federal judge forcefully during a contempt hearing through a Yiddish interpreter: "Because the transgression of mesira is so dire, my mind won’t change until I die.”

Sheik Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, has declared that it is necessary to destroy all the churches of the region

The ruling came in response to a query from a Kuwaiti delegation over proposed legislation to prevent construction of churches in the emirate. The mufti based his decision on a story that on his deathbed, Muhammad declared, “There are not to be two religions in the [Arabian] Peninsula.” This passage has long been used to justify intolerance in the kingdom. Churches have always been banned in Saudi Arabia, and until recently Jews were not even allowed in the country. Those wishing to worship in the manner of their choosing must do so hidden away in private, and even then the morality police have been known to show up unexpectedly and halt proceedings. This is not a small-time radical imam trying to stir up his followers with fiery hate speech. This was a considered, deliberate and specific ruling from one of the most important leaders in the Muslim world. It does not just create a religious obligation for those over whom the mufti has direct authority; it is also a signal to others in the Muslim world that destroying churches is not only permitted but mandatory. The Obama administration ignores these types of provocations at its peril. The White House has placed international outreach to Muslims at the center of its foreign policy in an effort to promote the image of the United States as an Islam-friendly nation. This cannot come at the expense of standing up for the human rights and religious liberties of minority groups in the Middle East. The region is a crucial crossroads. Islamic radicals are leading the rising political tide against the authoritarian, secularist old order. They are testing the waters in their relationship with the outside world, looking for signals of how far they can go in imposing their radical vision of a Shariah-based theocracy. Ignoring provocative statements like the mufti’s sends a signal to these groups that they can engage in the same sort of bigotry and anti-Christian violence with no consequences. Obama’s outreach campaign to the Muslim world has failed to generate the good will that he expected. In part, this was because he felt it was better to pander to prejudice than to command respect. When members of the Islamic establishment call for the religious equivalent of ethnic cleansing, the leader of the free world must respond or risk legitimizing the oppression that follows. The United States should not bow to the extremist dictates of the grand mufti, no matter how desperate the White House is for him to like us.

A black man accused of sexual abuse gunned down four people outside the courthouse where he was standing trial, leaving one woman dead

Bartholomew Granger, 41, shot his 20-year-old daughter and her mother as he went on a rampage during the lunch recess of the trial at Jefferson County Courthouse in Beaumont, Texas. His daughter Samantha Jackson, who testified against him, was in critical condition after the shootout, and a 79-year-old bystander was dead. After the shooting Granger ran to a nearby building and took hostages while being besieged by police, but the hostages turned on him and took away his gun. Granger has a lengthy criminal history that includes convictions for possession of marijuana and unlawfully carrying a firearm, according to police reports.

A black man has been arrested for stabbing his 76-year-old grandmother to death and killing his father before hiding their bodies and throwing a house party

Dwayne Flourney, 26, stabbed Sandra Flourney repeatedly before stuffing her body in the trunk of a car parked in the family's garage. He then waited for his father Brian, 52, to return from work, killed him in the same way and put his body in a chair on the back porch covered with tarp, police said.

Cultural stereotypes may be deep rooted in our genetic makeup, say scientists

Common traits like British individualism and Chinese conformity could be attributed to genetic differences between races according to a new study. The study suggests that the individualism seen in western nations, and the higher levels of collectivism and family loyalty found in Asian cultures, are caused by differences in the prevalence of particular genes. The scientists have demonstrate a robust association between cultural values of individualism–collectivism and the serotonin transporter gene. The researchers focused their attentions on the gene that controls levels of serotonin, a chemical in the brain which regulates mood and emotions. Their studies found that one version of the gene was far more common in western populations which was associated with individualistic and free-thinking behavior. Another version of the same gene, which was prevalent in Asian populations, was associated with collectivism and a greater willingness to put the common good first. People with this gene appeared to have a different response to serotonin. The findings suggest that races may have a number of inherent psychological differences — just as they differ in physical appearances.

Mexico: The killings of four youths, whose bodies were cut to pieces and left in plastic bags, has horrified the city of Cuernavaca, a year after a similar crime there led to the creation of a national crime victims’ movement

Prosecutors in Morelos State said that the victims, ages 14 to 21, were found in plastic bags along with a threatening note from a drug gang. The city, once a weekend retreat for wealthy Mexico City residents, has become the scene of drug gang turf battles in recent years. In March 2011, the son of the poet Javier Sicilia and six friends were found dead there.

New York City: A black gang turned a kidnapped 15-year-old girl into their terrified sex slave

The thugs even gang-raped the poor girl.

Poll: 25% of the nation's voters strongly approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president while 44% strongly disapprove

Overall, 44% of voters say that they at least somewhat approve of Obama's job performance while 54% at least somewhat disapprove.

Women constitute roughly one-quarter of new HIV infections in the United States with 66% of these infections occurring among black women, although black women constitute only 14% of the US female population

In the United States, the age-adjusted death rate of black women with HIV is roughly 15 times higher than that observed for HIV-infected white women. HIV infection rates of black women in some U.S. cities are as high as rates in some African countries.

Britain: The unemployment rate for black men under 24 has risen from 28.8% in 2008 to 55.9%, according to the Office of National Statistics

As blue-collar jobs continue to decline and be replaced by professions requiring higher levels of intelligence, blacks are going to become more of a burden on Western society.

Five new genetic variants linked to Crohn's disease (a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestines) in Jewish people of Eastern European descent (Ashkenazi Jews), have been identified

These findings will help to better understand why the prevalence of the disease is almost four times greater in Ashkenazi Jews than in other populations.

A Hispanic driver was in such a hurry to make a court date on meth possession that he racked up $2,000 worth of speeding tickets

Jose Romero-Valenzuela, 34, was pulled over three times by traffic officers along Interstate 84 in Oregon's Columbia River Gorge. The Latino was caught zooming west first at 105 mph, then at 98 mph and finally at 92 mph, all in a 65mph zone. Romero-Valenzuela told the traffic officers that he was driving to Oregon City for a hearing for a drug-related charge.

A 14-year-old black boy will stand trial as an adult in the shooting death of his 36-year-old mother, which he allegedly did because he was tired of her constant put downs

A 36th District Court judge has determined that there was enough evidence to send Detroit boy Joshua Smith's case to Wayne County Circuit Court. Smith faces an adult charge of first-degree murder and using a firearm during a felony. Police say that Tamiko Robinson was shot to death at her home following an argument with the teenager. A shotgun belonging to the boy's stepfather was used in the shooting. An officer said that Smith told investigators he was tired of being called names.

More than 90 Iraqi students have been stoned to death for their Emo haircuts by Islamic extremists in Baghdad after Iraq's interior ministry dubbed it devil worshiping

Iraq's Moral Police released a statement on the interior ministry's website condemning the emo phenomenon among Iraqi youth, declaring its intent to eliminate the trend. The move is part of a wider clampdown on young people taking on what government officials call Western appearances in Iraq. "The Emo phenomenon or devil worshipping is being followed by the Moral Police who have the approval to eliminate [the phenomenon] as soon as possible since it's detrimentally affecting the society and becoming a danger," the statement read. "They wear strange, tight clothes that have pictures on them such as skulls and use stationary that are shaped as skulls. They also wear rings on their noses and tongues, and do other strange activities,." Since the statement was published Islamic extremists have been harassing and killing teenagers with strange or emo appearances.

President Nikolas Sarkozy says that France has too many immigrants and they refuse to assimilate to French culture

Let us hope for the sake of France that he actually does something about this situation.

Hispanics were the big winners in the February 2012 jobs data

Hispanic employment has increased by a 1.124 million, or 5.5% since the recession started in December 2007, while non-Hispanic employment decreased by 5.4 million, or 4.3% over the same period. Hispanics are 16% of the labor force, but they received 27% of the jobs created in February 2012.

Nearly half of Britain's young black people are jobless

Figures from the Labour Force Survey reveal that unemployment among young black people (aged 16-24) in Britain is a shocking 44% – over twice the rate of their white counterparts, of whom 20% are jobless. One of the causes of high black unemployment is shared by working class males whatever their color. Structural changes in the British economy mean that many blue-collar jobs no longer exist. The question is why do the British continue to allow blacks to migrate to Britain when they are largely unemployable?

A U.S. district judge ordered New York City to pay $128 million to firefighters who claimed that the city used an entrance exam that deliberately sought to keep African-Americans and Latinos off the force

The judge also ordered the FDNY to hire 293 black and Latino applicants. Apparently it is racist to expect blacks and Hispanics to have cognitive and reading skills.

Black students, especially boys, face much harsher discipline in public schools than other students

Although black students made up only 18% of those enrolled in the schools sampled, they accounted for 35% of those suspended once, 46% of those suspended more than once and 39% of all expulsions. One in five black boys and more than one in 10 black girls received an out-of-school suspension. Over all, black students were three and a half times as likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers. And in districts that reported expulsions under zero-tolerance policies, Hispanic and black students represent 45% of the student body, but 56% of those expelled under such policies. According to the schools’ reports, over 70% of the students involved in school-related arrests or referred to law enforcement were Hispanic or black. Black and Hispanic students — particularly those with disabilities — are also disproportionately subject to seclusion or restraints. Students with disabilities make up 12% of the student body, but 70% of those subject to physical restraints. Black students with disabilities constituted 21% of the total, but 44% of those with disabilities subject to mechanical restraints, like being strapped down. And while Hispanics made up 21% of the students without disabilities, they accounted for 42% of those without disabilities who were placed in seclusion. While the disciplinary data was probably the most startling, the data showed a wide range of other racial and ethnic disparities. For while 55% of the high schools with low black and Hispanic enrollment offered calculus, only 29% of the high-minority high schools did so — and even in schools offering calculus, Hispanics made up 20% of the student body but only 10% of those enrolled in calculus. And while black and Hispanic students made up 44% of the students in the survey, they were only 26% of the students in gifted and talented programs. Many of the nation’s largest districts had very different disciplinary rates for students of different races. In Los Angeles, for example, black students made up 9% of those enrolled, but 26% of those suspended; in Chicago, they made up 45% of the students, but 76% of the suspensions.

Congressional crimes: African-Americans make up 10% of the House, but as of the end of February 2012, five of the sitting six named lawmakers under review by the House Ethics Committee are black

At one point in late 2009, seven lawmakers were known to be involved in formal House ethics inquiries; all were members of the Congressional Black Caucus. An eighth caucus member, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois, had also been under investigation, but his probe was halted temporarily while the Justice Department undertook an inquiry of its own. All told, about one-third of sitting black lawmakers have been named in an ethics probe during their careers, according to a National Journal review. Only two members of Congress have been formally charged with ethics violations in recent years and have faced the specter of public trials - Reps. Charles Rangel of New York (censured) and Maxine Waters of California (investigation ongoing). Both are black. There are no African-Americans in the Senate. Remember the most recent black senator, Roland Burris of Illinois? Reprimanded by the Senate Ethics Committee in 2009.

Authorities say that a convicted Hispanic killer who gained notoriety for having a murder scene tattooed on his chest received unemployment benefits while he was in jail

Sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker said that Anthony Garcia, nicknamed "Chopper," received more than $30,000 in fraudulent unemployment while in Los Angeles County jail from 2008 to 2010. Parker says that Garcia's father and two girlfriends would get the checks then cash them and deposit the money in the inmate accounts of Garcia and fellow gang members. Garcia's father 47-year-old Juan Garcia, and girlfriends 45-year-old Sandra Jaimez and 25-year-old Cynthia Limas, have been arrested on charges including grand theft. Parker says that authorities have not decided whether to charge Garcia. He was convicted of the 2004 killing of a gang rival in Pico Rivera. The evidence against him included a tattoo on his chest of the crime scene.

Black crime: A 13-year-old boy who was doused with gasoline and lit on fire while walking home from school is recovering from first-degree burns to his face and head

The boy was just two blocks from his home in Kansas City when two teenagers began to follow him and then attacked him, his mother, Melissa Coon, said. Police have described the suspects as black 16-year-olds, while the victim is white. "We were told it's a hate crime," Coon said. "They rushed him on the porch as he tried to get the door open," Coon said. "(One of them) poured the gasoline, then flicked the Bic, and said, 'This is what you deserve. You get what you deserve, white boy.'" By lighting the gasoline, the second attacker "produced a large fireball burning the face and hair" of the boy, according to a Kansas City Police Department report. "It was pretty bad stuff," Detective Stacey Taylor said, adding that police are concerned the boy may have suffered damage to his eyes and lungs. Coon said that her son put out the fire with his shirt and called 911 himself. He was rushed to the hospital and was treated for his injuries. She believes the students also attend East High School with her son, and said he will not be returning to the school. She also said that her traumatized family plans now plans to move. "My 5-year-old came in and asked me, 'Mom, am I going to get set on fire today?'" Coon said. "I was in tears."

A two-week old boy died at a Brooklyn hospital after contracting herpes through a Jewish religious circumcision ritual that ignited controversy in 2005 after another infant died

The infant died at Maimonides Hospital, according to a spokeswoman for the city Medical Examiner. The cause of death was listed as disseminated herpes simplex virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction. In 2004, city health officials revealed that a baby boy died after a circumcision carried out by a Rockland County rabbi who specializes in the centuries-old, ultra-Orthodox Jewish ritual known as metzizah b’ peh. Under the practice, the rabbi or mohel removes blood from the wound with his mouth — a practice city health officials have criticized, saying it carried inherent risks for babies. In 2004, three infants circumcised by Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer were determined to have contracted herpes, city officials said. Among them were twins circumcised in October 2004 after Fischer performed the Jewish religious ceremony known as a bris.

New York City: At the eight specialized high schools, Asian students got the highest number of offers this year: 2,490, or 46%

White students were offered 23% of the slots. Black students received 6% of the offers, while Latinos accounted for 8%.

The Hispanic convicted of putting his semen in yogurt samples he was giving out to female customers at the grocery store he worked at has been sentenced to two years in prison

Anthony Garcia, 32, was named in a two-count indictment in a U.S. District Court for giving a woman a yogurt containing his semen. The second count is for making false statements to the police. According to the police report from the Albuquerque Police Department, the victim told officers that she was shopping at the grocery store with her daughter when a pushy store clerk, Garcia, offered her a yogurt sample.
She tasted the yogurt and said she immediately thought it tasted gross and disgusting and police noted that she said it tasted like semen. DNA was taken from Garcia and the yogurt sample, and tests confirmed that his semen was in yogurt the shopper consumed. A federal judge denied Garcia bail, stating that his behavior was getting worse, and that he’s a danger to society. He has at least three prior offenses on his record including being detained for indecent exposure and masturbating in public. Garcia is also not allowed to live with children, though he violated that order by living with his sister and her 14-year-old son at the time of arrest. He pled not guilty to the changes, but later took a deal and entered a guilty plea to a two-count indictment charging him with adulterating food with semen, and making false statements to federal investigators during a criminal investigation. Garcia faced the maximum sentence of three years for contaminating the yogurt, and a maximum of five years for providing a false statement. Despite his record, he was only given 2 years in prison and will be on supervised release for three years after completing his prison sentence. Garcia was also ordered to pay restitution to the victim of his criminal conduct.

Hispanics confront an income gap of at least 35% in every major metropolitan area across the United States

That's the disparity between per capita incomes for whites and Hispanics in 95 large metros, according to an On Numbers analysis of federal data. Los Angeles is the worst market for Hispanic earning power, despite the fact that two of every five residents in the region are Hispanic. The income gap in L.A. is 67.2%. Canton, Illinois, is dead-last among markets of all sizes, with a disparity of 82.5%. Palm Bay-Melbourne, Florida, has the smallest discrepancy of any major market, with per capita incomes of $19,396 for Hispanics and $29,829 for whites. That means a typical Hispanic resident of Palm Bay-Melbourne earns $650 for every $1,000 earned by an average white resident, a gap of 35.0%. The runners-up among major markets are Knoxville, Tennesee, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, both with gaps of 38.1%. (A major market is defined as any metropolitan area with a population of more than 500,000.) Hispanics actually outearn whites in three small markets: Parsons, Kansas, Branson, Missouri, and Houma, Louisiana. But whites hold a financial advantage of more than 50% in 429 metros and micros.

African-American blood donors

Illinois Coalition of Community Blood Centers President Ann McKanna says that race often plays a significant role when it comes to donating blood. “Blood transfusions for patients with Sickle Cell Disease will be more successful if the blood donated came from an African-American blood donor," says McKanna. "The African-American donors have different proteins on the surface of their blood cells than Caucasian donors." Finding blood for African-American patients with Sickle Cell Disease and other illnesses is often difficult because only 1% of the nation's donors are African American.

Primitive Africa: In 2009 Mariamu Staford, a Tanzanian woman in her mid-20s, was sleeping in her hut when a group of men broke in and chopped off her arms

In the shadow of the Rwandan genocide and perennial war in Congo, where violence against women has become so common as to be considered a war tactic, Staford’s story is sadly less shocking than it might be. But Staford wasn’t attacked for tribalism, demoralization or sex. She has albinism, a medical condition in which the body produces little or no pigment. In East Africa albinos’ limbs are highly valued — often fetching thousands of dollars on the black market — by black witch doctors who use the bones in potions they sell to those who think they bring prosperity. Since 2007 in Tanzania, 64 people with albinism have been murdered for their body parts. Fourteen others have been mutilated, including a 13-year-old girl whose right arm was severed as she lay sleeping next to her mother.

A shocking video that appears to show Libyan rebels torturing a group of sub-Saharan African detainees has appeared on YouTube

The footage shows a dozen or so men - presumably captured mercenaries suspected of fighting for the toppled government of Muammur Gaddafi - held in what looks like a caged zoo enclosure. They each have their hands tied behind their back and are sat on the cage's dirty floor. Each has the old Libyan flag stuffed into his mouth. While a crowd of men gather round the enclosure jeering, their prisoners are made to hop on the spot. The man filming the scene, who remains off-camera, can be heard shouting: "Eat the flag, you dog. Patience you dog, patience. God is great."

A Mexican has pleaded guilty in Brooklyn to working for the family business — an international sex trafficking ring that goes back generations

Angel Cortez Granados, 25, admitted that he wooed a woman and brought her to the United States as his “girlfriend” only to enslave her as a Queens prostitute traveling from client to client in a livery cab. “I threatened her, telling her that she was alone in this country, that nobody would help her, so that she would work as a prostitute,” Granados told Federal Judge Cheryl Pollak. He said that he warned the victim, identified only as Esperanza, that he would call the police if she didn’t follow orders. “Since she didn’t have any papers, (I was) scaring her with the possibility of going to jail,” he said. Six other members of the Los Granados ring have been charged in New York, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Pamela Chen. The feds identified their first victim in 1998. Prosecutors believe that at least 20 relatives are involved in luring women into sexual slavery in New York City. Mexican authorities have arrested four members and at least four others are reportedly on the run. There’s a $78,000 reward. The Granados are from Tenancingo, in Tlaxcala state — notorious as the center of Mexican sex trafficking. The town of 10,000 even holds a procession every year for a “patron saint of pimps,” prosecutors said. It’s also famous for luxurious mansions paid for by the prostitutes’ earnings, called calcuilchil or “houses of ass” in the region’s indigenous language. Chen said that the pimps rope in the women “with some sort of romantic relationship.” But once they get to the United States, they are forced to sell sex, usually for $35 for a 15-minute session. “They use all sorts of intimidation, threats, against the women,” Chen said. “It’s a whole industry, which is upsetting.” The feds have found at least 15 women trafficked by the Granados family ring in the city, Chen said. The pimps often partner with livery drivers based out of Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens, where promoters hand out cards and even bottle openers advertising sexy girls for “delivery,” she said. Granados, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the Bronx in September 2011, faces a minimum of 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He sneaked over the Arizona border with Esperanza in 2010, pushing her into prostitution in North Carolina before bringing her to New York City in January 2011, court papers say. He took most of her earnings — but must now pay her restitution.

The Israeli Council of Progressive (Reform) Rabbis recently drafted an emotional letter to Barack Obama pleading with him to release Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard

The Israeli Reform rabbis drafted their letter amid increasing pressure on Obama to commute Pollard’s sentence to the more than 26 years of his life term he has already served. The pressure is expected to intensify ahead of Obama’s meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Washington. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the immediate past president of the Reform Movement, and Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Reform Religious Action Center, met with Obama privately after Obama spoke at a Reform Conference in Washington in December 2011. Nearly half the meeting was devoted to the Pollard issue. In their appeal to Obama, the rabbis stressed that commuting Pollard’s sentence was a matter of consensus throughout the Jewish community. But Yoffie emphasized that while Pollard’s release was important to the Jewish community as a whole, “it is especially important to the Reform Jewish community.” The rabbis said after the December 2011 meeting that they felt that Obama had listened to their appeal with a sympathetic ear. They told people they felt encouraged and that they were expecting movement on the Pollard issue soon. “Hopefully we will see some progress in the not-too-distant future in terms of getting clemency for Jonathan Pollard,” Saperstein said in a video calling for Pollard’s release that has been circulating on YouTube. American Jewish leaders expressed cautious optimism that the Obama-Netanyahu meeting could lead to Pollard’s release. “The time is ripe now,” a prominent American Jewish leader said. “The upcoming summit with Netanyahu next week provides the president with the perfect opportunity to release Pollard – a gesture that would be appreciated by Jews around the world, especially the Reform movement, his greatest supporters.”

Are blue-eyed males shyer than brown-eyed ones?

Peter Frost looks at the connection between pigmentation and human behavior.

Researchers, led by scientists from Johns Hopkins, have found five previously unknown gene mutations believed to be associated with elevated blood platelet counts in African-Americans

The study is believed to be the first of its size to focus on platelet genetics in African Americans, who have a higher risk of stroke than other racial groups. They also have relatively higher platelet counts and average platelet volume, and worse outcomes than whites after a heart attack.

Gallup finds U.S. unemployment, as measured without seasonal adjustment, to be 9.1% in February 2012

When Gallup applies the 0.5-percentage-point seasonal adjustment that the government applied to its unadjusted data for February 2011, it produces an adjusted unemployment rate for February 2012 of 8.6% - a substantial increase from the 8.3% adjusted rate the government reported for January 2012.

Rising gasoline prices: 18% of Americans say that Obama or his administration are most to blame

Only 14% put the most blame on the oil companies or domestic oil producers. Even fewer place the most blame on Iran, Wall Street or Congress.

Food-stamp use jumped in the United States in December 2011 with more than 1 in 7 people receiving benefits

Food stamp rolls increased 5.5% in 2011, the Department of Agriculture reported. The number of recipients in the food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), rose to 46.5 million, or 15% of the population in December 2011. Minnesota, Colorado, Hawaii, Alaska, New Jersey, Delaware and Iowa all saw year-over-year jumps in use by over 10%. Just Wyoming, Michigan, North Dakota, Utah and West Virginia posted annual drops in the number of people receiving food stamps. Mississippi reported the largest share of its population relying on food stamps, more than 21%. One in five residents in New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington DC also were food-stamp recipients. Food stamp rolls exploded during the downturn, which began in late 2007. Even after the recession came to its official end in June 2009, families continued to tap into food assistance as unemployment remained high and those lucky enough to find jobs were often met with lower wages.

A 19-year old South Asian Indian has been arrested and charged in connection with the firebombing of two synagogues in New Jersey

Aakash Dalal's arrest was announced by Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli. Dalal has been charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated arson, bias intimidation and criminal mischief, and will be arraigned on March 5, 2012. His bail has been set at $2.5 million. Prosecutors said that Dalal, a resident of New Brunswick, had instigated the attacks on synagogues in Rutherford and Paramus. Another young man Anthony Graziano, 19, had already been arrested in the attacks on the two synagogues. Dalal had given Graziano information about making incendiary devices. Authorities had said that Graziano was driven by a hatred of Jews and had searched online for synagogues in his area. He thew Molotov cocktails and other incendiary devices at the Rutherford synagogue. In the attack, the Molotov cocktails ignited a fire in the second-floor bedroom of Rabbi Nosson Schuman, who lived with his family above the synagogue. Graziano has pleaded not guilty to charges that include nine counts of attempted murder, bias intimidation, arson and aggravated arson. While Graziano had carried out the attacks alone, Dalal was involved in two separate episodes involving anti-Semitic graffiti, prosecutors claimed. Dalal had attended Rutgers University and gone to middle school with Graziano.

Men are more likely to be violent toward fertile women, and fertile women select men who are more likely to be violent

Apparently, men are violent towards women to keep them faithful and women are attracted to violent men because they produce more sons.

Black crime: A middle school teacher had sex with a 15-year-old student and secretly videotaped another

Almarcus Dwayne Thomas, 42, a teacher at Tucker Middle School, DeKalb County, has been charged with statutory rape and molestation. He is being held without bond. A spokesman for the school said that the father of a 15-year-old girl contacted them in December 2011 claiming that Thomas was having inappropriate sexual contact with his daughter. According to the charges, Thomas is accused of having sexual contact with the 15-year old student at school and also at her home. He’s also accused of secretly making inappropriate videos of second student on school grounds. A laptop computer retrieved form Thomas’ home was found to contain inappropriate sexual images.

An American-born Islamic terrorist has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for trying to join the mujaheddin in Afghanistan so that he could kill U.S. troops

The judge called Brooklyn-born Betim Kaziu, 23, a traitor when handing down the sentence. Federal Judge John Gleeson said: "You grew up in Brooklyn and you decided to murder your own country's soldiers. You devoted your life to the cause of destroying this country and all it stands for." Kaziu was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, attempt to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and conspiracy to use a firearm. A jury found the 23-year-old guilty in July 2011 after just four hours if deliberation following his two-week trial. The court heard that he tried to join al-Qaeda groups in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans, but was arrested before he could make a trip to Pakistan.

Every year in Pakistan, about 100 cases of acid attacks are reported to the police, but many more go unreported

These are usually intimate crimes, perpetrated by family members, often vindictive husbands, but also disgruntled mother-in-laws. The victims tend to be young women who have displeased in some way - perhaps producing a daughter instead of a son; or not doing the mother-in-law's bidding. Some die, but many are left with horrific deformities that often render them blind, unable to eat or to carry on a normal life. Acid attacks are not unique to Pakistan. They occur in India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran, in addition to Cambodia. The attacks also seem to produce a copycat effect within societies: in Baghdad in 2005, Muslims began to attack women with acid for not dressing modestly enough. Acid is inexpensive and easy to access, and the consequences of the attacks are utterly dehumanizing to victims.

Nearly every fourth non-German Muslim rejects integration, questions western values and tends to accept violence, according to a study commissioned by the German Interior Ministry

The survey showed that of Muslims living in Germany who were not German citizens, 52% favored integration, while 48% strongly leaned toward separation and clearly rejected German majority culture. There are currently around four million Muslims living in Germany. The survey also showed that among 14 to 32-year-old Muslims there exists a subgroup of Islamic religious extremists who hold anti-western views and are prepared to use violence. This group amounts to about 15% of Muslims with German citizenship and about 24% for Muslims who are not German.

Forty years after a major milestone for African-Americans at UNC, the University’s black males are suffering from exceptionally low graduation rates

Richard Epps, who is now deceased, became the University’s first black student body president 40 years ago, during a time when barely 60 black students walked the campus, said Pam Campbell-Chisholm, a friend of Epps. Epps’ success was a testament to UNC’s growing accessibility for African-Americans. But now University administrators have shifted their focus to a different concern — fostering academic success for black males while also maintaining the historic accessibility. UNC’s four-year graduation rate is just 49.2% for black males, compared to a 70.8% graduation rate for white males, according to a 2010 study. The four-year graduation rate for black females is 71%, about 22% higher than their male counterparts. Meanwhile, there is about a 10% difference between the graduation rates of white males and white females.

A Brooklyn rabbi who scammed New York State out of nearly $200,000 a week in unpaid cigarette taxes has been put out of business

Meshulam Rothschild, 26, was moving illegal cigarettes bearing no tax stamps out of his warehouse in Williamsburg. Rothschild, a member of the Pupa Hasidic sect, purchased the untaxed cigarettes in Virginia and then peddled them to bodegas and shops in Chinatown and elsewhere in New York City. He moved about 3,600 cartons a week, sources said. The state lost about $50 in tax on each contraband carton. Rothschild actually had to start sending the cigarettes back to Virginia for phony tax stamps at one point because Chinatown merchants were refusing to buy the unstamped packs — for fear they were inferior fakes from China. Rothschild also was charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument for possessing more than 11,000 phony tax stamps from the Old Dominion state. That top rap could land him 15 years behind bars. Also arrested in the scheme were three members of the same family: Nasmi Havolli, 51; his son Nart, 20; and Nasmi’s nephew Blerim, 24. In all, 23 people have been busted for beating the state and city out of more than $2 million in cigarette taxes, officials said. A fraction of the money has been recovered through forfeitures. In one case, cigarette-tax scofflaw Mamdu Bayy, 34, forfeited almost $240,000, and in another, cheat Ching Chong Lam, 46, gave up $180,000 to satisfy the charges against them, a spokeswoman for the Brooklyn DA said. During another sting, two men, Gani Hodja and Abdul Herkash met with an undercover investigator to buy untaxed cigarettes and wound up spraying the operative with mace. They then stole the shipment of Newports and Marlboros, the spokeswoman said. They were charged with robbery.

Unemployment is worse under Obama than it was under Jimmy Carter

The average unemployment rate under Carter was 7.6%.

An Egyptian court has sentenced a Christian man to six years in prison on charges of showing contempt for religion and insulting the Prophet Mohammed

The court, in the southern Egyptian province of Assiut, said that Makram Diab, a school employee, had made offensive remarks against Islam's prophet, according to the report. The remarks infuriated Diab's Muslim colleagues, who went on strike until he was arrested and prosecuted. Recent parliamentary elections have produced a strong showing for Islamists in Egypt, sparking concerns over freedom among liberals and Christians, who make up around 10% of the country's 80-million-strong population.

African immigrant crime: A couple have been convicted of murdering a teenage boy who was tortured and drowned for being a witch

Kristy Bamu, 15, was killed by his sister Magalie, 29, and her partner Eric Bikubi, 28. He died in a bath at their tower block flat in Newham, east London, on Christmas Day 2010 after days of being abused. He had come to London from Paris with his two brothers and two sisters to spend the festive season with Magalie. But things turned sour when the couple, who were said to be obsessed with witchcraft known as kindoki in their native Democratic Republic of Congo, accused him of putting spells on a younger child. Football coach Bikubi and Magalie were found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey. Judge David Paget told the jury of seven women and five men that the case was so "harrowing" he was exempting them from jury service for the rest of their lives. "It is a case we will all remember," he told them. "Court staff will speak to you and offer help to you." The court heard that Kristy was in such pain after three days of fasting and being attacked that he "begged to die" before slipping under the water. He had been struck with knives, sticks, metal bars, and a hammer and a chisel. After he refused to admit to sorcery and witchcraft, his punishments in a "deliverance" ceremony became more horrendous. Bikubi forced them to pray for deliverance for three days and nights and deprived them of food and water. The sisters, aged 20 and 11, were beaten along with Kristy, but escaped further attacks after "confessing" to being witches. Kristy was singled out after wetting his pants. He was struck in the mouth with a heavy bar and hammer, knocking out his teeth. Ceramic floor tiles and bottles were smashed on his head and a pair of pliers used to twist his ear. The terrified siblings, who also included a 13-year-old boy and an autistic brother aged 22, were made to join in the torture. At one point, Bikubi told the youngsters to jump out of the window to see if they could fly, the court heard. They looked to their older sister to save them, but instead Magalie encouraged Bikubi and beat Kristy until he also confessed to witchcraft. At the end of their ordeal, the brothers and sisters were all placed in the bath to be hosed down in cold water with a shower head. Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, said: "It was only when he realised that Kristy was not moving that Eric Bikubi stopped what he was doing and pulled him from the water. By then it was too late." Kristy had 130 separate injuries and died from a combination of being beaten and drowning. Mr Altman said: "In a staggering act of depravity and cruelty, they both forced the others to take part in the assaults upon Kristy. As Kristy's injuries became ever more severe, he even pleaded to be allowed to die. Eventually Bikubi took him into the bathroom, put him in the bath and started to run the water. Kristy was just too badly injured and exhausted to resist or to keep his head above the water. Kristy was killed in the name of witchcraft. It is hard to believe in this day and age anyone can believe someone was practising witchcraft."

Black crime: A Baltimore jury took less than three hours to convict a 37-year-old African-American of first-degree murder and other charges for killing a high school student in a relative's house where the teen sought refuge after being shunned for being gay

Dante Parrish faces the possibility of life in prison without parole when he is sentenced on April 3, 2012. He was convicted of killing of 15-year-old Jason Mattison Jr., who had excelled in his studies and wanted to become a doctor. The young victim's relatives attended every day of the trial and watched as the lead prosecutor described how Jason was suffocated with a pillowcase, slashed with a razor and stuffed into a bedroom closet. Prosecutors said that Parrish left his palm print in the victim's blood on a door frame. The prosecutor described the young victim as virtually homeless, going from "place to place to keep a roof over his head" and settling at his great-aunt's house, where he felt comfortable. He was in an upstairs bedroom of that house on November 10, 2009, when he was attacked. Three young adults had left for a party in Cherry Hill, and the prosecutor said that Jason's great-aunt and another adult had passed out after taking heroin. Assistant State's Attorney Jennifer Hastings said that a 13-year-old girl heard Mattison scream for help and managed to rouse the aunt, who opened the door to see Parrish and Jason, whose pants were below his knees. But Hastings told the jury that Parrish ordered the aunt out, and she passed out in a nearby room without understanding what she had seen. It was then, Hastings said, that Parrish killed the boy, stuffing a pillowcase down his throat and slicing his neck with a box cutter so deeply that he cut a main artery in three separate places. "Jason died a painful death, a slow death, and died at the age of 15, alone," the prosecutor told jurors. While Hastings said that Jason felt comfortable at the house, she also described it as lacking any adult supervision, where the adults were often high or drunk and there were frequent visitors. His great-aunt took in Parrish, no questions asked, because he was an old family friend, even though he hadn't been seen in 20 years, the prosecutor said. She said the family didn't know that Parrish had been convicted in 1999 of killing a man in East Baltimore and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Subsequent appeals were unsuccessful until the Innocence Project helped him get a new trial in 2008, in part because of witness identification of a gun he said he had never owned. Parrish entered an Alford plea, acknowledging there was enough evidence to convict him but maintaining his innocence. He was credited with time served and released, having served one-third of his sentence.

Bigotry and Darwinian fitness

Is racism biologically beneficial?

Northern Ireland: 60% of entrants to higher education are Catholic and 60% are female and the workforce is also becoming increasingly female and Catholic

A report on Northern Ireland points out that the highest achievers in education are Catholic girls who do not qualify for free school meals, more than 74% of them obtain two A-levels. By contrast, just 11% of poorer Protestant boys who qualify for free school meals achieve two A-levels. The report sees the Catholic middle classes as the big winner from the peace process so far. Their income levels and educational qualifications are now higher than their Protestant counterparts and their numbers look like rising to eventually create a Catholic majority. Under the age of 35, the majority population is already Catholic.

Asian crime: The 25-year-old campaign treasurer ensnared in the federal probe that has imperiled the political career of New York City Controller John Liu was not hung out to dry, the embattled fiscal watchdog insisted

“Jenny is a very capable young individual and she is capable as compared to anyone of any age,” a defiant Liu said of Jia (Jenny) Hou, who was arrested on sweeping federal charges of campaign finance fraud and obstruction of justice. “I’m not hanging anyone out to dry.” Yet Hou — who was paid just $27,678 by Liu’s campaign but given the important title of treasurer — was placed by the feds at the center of a conspiracy to illegally raise political contributions from big-money givers whose identities were elaborately hidden from public view through the use of straw donors. Her age and inexperience have generated the question of whether she was positioned to take a fall for higher-ups who actually engineered the scheme. The federal complaint against Hou did not accuse Liu of knowing what was going on, but hinted strongly that he was aware. Hou, a Rutgers University graduate who made just $1,375 doing work for Liu’s 2009 campaign for controller, is the daughter of a Queens businessman and close Liu pal. A well-placed source in Liu’s office said that Hou’s father, Jian Li (Peter) Hou, is likely to lean on his daughter to implicate the controller — as legal experts predict the feds will cut her a deal to cooperate against him. Contrary to Liu’s assertions, the source portrayed Hou as a fall person for Chung Seto, a top adviser to Liu’s campaign. “(Hou) seems like a nice young girl,” said the source. “Everyone knows Chung runs the show.” Hou was promoted to treasurer by Liu’s former campaign treasurer, Mei Hua Ru. As Liu’s campaign, if not his political career, appeared to be unraveling with Hou’s arrest — which followed the bust of a Liu fund-raising intermediary for campaign fraud — it was Ru who gathered about 20 controller’s office staffers for a morning pep talk. She told the incredulous group that the federal probe was a racist witch hunt, the source said. “She told them it’s all a bunch of b.s. and that they are out to get him because he’s Asian,” the source said.

The Taliban took four men to the main bazaar in a southern Afghanistan district at evening prayer, denounced them as government spies because they were carrying satellite phones, then beheaded them in front of local residents who had been summoned to watch

Several days later, the director of a relatively progressive radio station in eastern Afghanistan was found stabbed to death in his car. His back, stomach and chest had been slashed, and his throat slit, according to the man’s brother, who said that his head had been nearly severed from his body. The local police chief, Daulat Khan Zadran, said the victim, Sadeem Khan Bahader Zoi, had been totally beheaded. “We still don’t know the cause” of the killing, Zadran said, but the method was consistent with the Taliban. Beheadings by the Taliban are not new, but they have not been seen for a while, and five such gruesome deaths in a few days suggest that the Taliban may be operating with increasing impunity in some regions.

Israel mulls indictment of former Chief Rabbi in corruption case - Eliahu Bakshi-Doron suspected of approving the ordaining of unqualified security forces officers as rabbis so that they could qualify for a state pay raise

Former chief Sephardi Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron may be indicted for his part in the rabbis' file scandal, in which hundreds of security forces officers were ordained as rabbis in order to qualify for a pay raise, the State Prosecutor's Office has announced. According to a 2007 indictment, the rabbis' files affair, which took place between 1999-2003, involved the ordaining of about 1,500 in private tutoring classes, despite the fact that many of those who took the classes did not qualify for the position. Consequently, the indecent claims, hundreds of millions of shekels in public funds were paid to cover the pay increase given to those officially recognizing as officiating army, police and prison service rabbis. According to the SPO's announcement, hundreds of police officers, mostly in lower positions such as patrol cops and warehouse workers, stationed in the north, south, and in Jerusalem were ordained as rabbis. In response to a request submitted by several of the classes participants, Bakshi-Doron, who was chief rabbi at the time, instructed the testing and ordaining division of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to award the program's graduates with a higher education religious studies diploma, which grants a pay raise equivalent to an academic degree. Moreover, Bakshi-Doron, according to the SPO, did so despite his hesitance to grant the diploma to those he knew were not qualified for it, and that the motivation behind its acquiring was financial. The renewed probe of Bakshi-Doron's conduct in the affair was launched after a recent court testimony by the former chief rabbi's contradicted what he had told police during his investigation. It is on the basis on evidence collected on the matter and his statements in court that the SPO is considering an indictment against Bakshi-Doron.

An illegal immigrant went job hunting naked and high

Hispanic Jose Ayala arrived at a Del Paso Heights-area welding shop without a stitch of clothing on his body and having taken methamphetamine. Two cops arrived and tried to arrest Ayala but he became aggressive and started to fight them, pulling the female officer’s hair and kicking. After a struggle they managed to get him to the ground, assisted by three by-standers who bundled in to help. It took six officers to tie Ayala up and bundle him into a patrol car, before whisking him off to Sacramento County Jail. Dectectives have advised anyone who came into contact with Ayala to be tested for HIV as he is apparently HIV positive. They have also confirmed that he has been living in the United States illegally. He was refused bail and kept in prison on immigration hold.

Dumb black criminal: A dim-witted attempted bank robber wound up behind bars after a lack of cash forced him to return to the scene of the crime

Authorities said that the African-American suspect was arrested after coming back to the Chamblee, Georgia, Wells Fargo bank he tried to rob moments earlier to withdraw money for his cab fare. Trevor Gladston Jr, 39, is accused of giving a bank teller a note that said: "Give the money now or we start to shoot". Police said that he left without any money when the teller, protected by bullet-resistant glass, stepped back from her seat. Cops said that Gladston then fled in the taxi. The taxi driver told police that she picked Gladston up at the MARTA train station in Chamblee, and he asked her to go back there after coming out of the bank. But when they got to the MARTA station, the driver flagged down a transit police officer after becoming concerned that her passenger would skip out on his fare. Chamblee Police Chief Marc Johnson said: "He just convinced the guy that you need to get some money and pay it or you're gonna end up in trouble, so the perpetrator agreed to take the cab back to the bank". Police said that the officer didn't know about the robbery attempt and talked Gladston into returning to the bank to get money for the cab ride. But when they got there, Gladston was arrested after bank employees recognized him as the man from the robbery attempt. He was booked on charges of attempted armed robbery and transferred to the DeKalb County Jail.

A convicted black murderer with an extensive criminal history was accidentally released from custody while awaiting a court appearance in South Carolina, according to police

Detectives are now hunting African-American Thomas Aaron Whitlock, who was brought to York County Detention Center for a hearing on a drug possession charge. The 31-year-old, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2009, was let go by mistake – but it took authorities almost 24 hours to realize their error. Whitlock was charged with killing Jamie Thompson, who was found shot in Charlotte, North Carolina, in June 2009. Thompson died two months later but Whitlock was not arrested until April 2010, when FBI agents found him hiding underneath a house in Dallas, Texas. He was convicted of second-degree murder and possession of a gun in May 2011 and was sentenced to between 11 and 14 years. South Carolina records show that Whitlock had previously been convicted on assault and battery, burglary, robbery and drug charges.

Israeli officials say that they won't warn the United States if they decide to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities

And Israel is supposed to by our ally?

New archaeological evidence suggests that America was first discovered by Stone Age people from Europe – 10,000 years before the Siberian-originating ancestors of the American Indians set foot in the New World

A remarkable series of several dozen European-style stone tools, dating back between 19,000 and 26,000 years, have been discovered at six locations along the US east coast. Three of the sites are on the Delmarva Peninsular in Maryland, discovered by archaeologist Dr Darrin Lowery of the University of Delaware. One is in Pennsylvania and another in Virginia. A sixth was discovered by scallop-dredging fishermen on the seabed 60 miles from the Virginian coast on what, in prehistoric times, would have been dry land. The new discoveries are among the most important archaeological breakthroughs for several decades - and are set to add substantially to our understanding of humanity's spread around the globe. The similarity between other later east coast US and European Stone Age stone tool technologies has been noted before. But all the US European-style tools, unearthed before the discovery or dating of the recently found or dated US east coast sites, were from around 15,000 years ago - long after Stone Age Europeans (the Solutrean cultures of France and Iberia) had ceased making such artifacts. Most archaeologists had therefore rejected any possibility of a connection. But the newly-discovered and recently-dated early Maryland and other US east coast Stone Age tools are from between 26,000 and 19,000 years ago - and are therefore contemporary with the virtually identical western European material. What’s more, chemical analysis carried out on a European-style stone knife found in Virginia back in 1971 revealed that it was made of French-originating flint. Professor Dennis Stanford, of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, and Professor Bruce Bradley of the University of Exeter, the two leading archaeologists who have analysed all the evidence, are proposing that Stone Age people from Western Europe migrated to North America at the height of the Ice Age by travelling (over the ice surface and/or by boat) along the edge of the frozen northern part of the Atlantic. At the peak of the Ice Age, around three million square miles of the North Atlantic was covered in thick ice for all or part of the year. However, the seasonally shifting zone where the ice ended and the open ocean began would have been extremely rich in food resources – migrating seals, sea birds, fish and the now-extinct northern hemisphere penguin-like species, the great auk. Stanford and Bradley have long argued that Stone Age humans were quite capable of making the 1500 mile journey across the Atlantic ice - but till now there was comparatively little evidence to support their thinking. But the new Maryland, Virginia and other US east coast material, and the chemical tests on the Virginian flint knife, have begun to transform the situation. Now archaeologists are starting to investigate half a dozen new sites in Tennessee, Maryland and even Texas – and these locations are expected to produce more evidence. Another key argument for Stanford and Bradley’s proposal is the complete absence of any human activity in north-east Siberia and Alaska prior to around 15,500 years ago. If the Maryland and other east coast people of 26,000 to 19,000 years ago had come from Asia, not Europe, early material, dating from before 19,000 years ago, should have turned up in those two northern areas, but none have been found. Although Solutrean Europeans may well have been the first Americans, they had a major disadvantage compared to the Asian-originating Indians who entered the New World via the Bering Straits or along the Aleutian Islands chain after 15,500 years ago. Whereas the Solutreans had only had a 4500 year long Ice Age window to carry out their migratory activity, the Asian-originating Indians had some 15,000 years to do it. What’s more, the latter two-thirds of that 15 millennia long period was climatologically much more favorable and substantially larger numbers of Asians were therefore able to migrate. As a result of these factors the Solutrean (European originating) Native Americans were either partly absorbed by the newcomers or were substantially obliterated by them either physically or through competition for resources. Some genetic markers for Stone Age western Europeans simply don’t exist in north-east Asia – but they do in tiny quantities among some north American Indian groups. Scientific tests on ancient DNA extracted from 8000 year old skeletons from Florida have revealed a high level of a key probable European-originating genetic marker. There are also a tiny number of isolated Native American groups whose languages appear not to be related in any way to Asian-originating American Indian peoples. But the greatest amount of evidence is likely to come from under the ocean – for most of the areas where the Solutreans would have stepped off the Ice onto dry land are now up to 100 miles out to sea. The one underwater site that has been identified - thanks to the scallop dredgers – is set to be examined in greater detail this summer – either by extreme-depth divers or by remotely operated mini submarines equipped with cameras and grab arms.