Netherlands: A Muslim high school student has been suspended after posting a video in which he said that he belonged to ISIS and wanted to decapitate Jews

Islam: the religion that keeps on sucking.

Poll: 24% of Jewish Israelis admit to boycotting Arab businesses

In addition, the survey found that 51% would boycott businesses that refused to fire employees who spoke out against the Israeli army.

A Jewish Tory MP has resigned from the British government after a newspaper reported that he had sent explicit photographs of himself to an undercover journalist

MP Brooks Newmark quit as Minister for Civil Society following the expose by the Sunday Mirror, which reported that the undercover journalist was posing as a female party activist investigating the inappropriate use of social media by MPs. The male reporter had set up a Twitter account using the alias Sophie Wittmans, used an image of a beautiful blond girl as his profile picture and begun following several MPs. Newmark, 56, thereafter began following her and initiated a private message to her in early July 2014. Eventually, the conversations evolved into flirting and exchanging photos, including "a graphic snap exposing Newmark while wearing a pair of paisley pyjamas." Sophie then sent a naked picture. The Jewish MP then asked her to "resend without your hand in the way and legs parted and I will send something in return. That way we both have a secret.” He added, “Assuming it meets my request and I reciprocate you MUST swear on a stack of Bibles you won’t show pics as I promise not to show pics of you? OK?” The Jewish MP then sent a graphic image of himself to the reporter. Newmark, a father of five, co-founded the group Women2Win, a campaign to elect more Conservative women to the British parliament. The Sunday Mirror reported that when first contacted, Newmark denied knowing Sophie, but that after the allegations were passed on to Downing Street, a spokesman responded that Prime Minister David Cameron had accepted Newmark's resignation.

Immigration lowers the wages of native-born workers and raises the income of their employers and other upper-income natives who derive a disproportionate share of income from capital gains, stock options, and other unearned income derived from higher profits

Immigration helps the rich but hurts poor and middle-class Americans. During the first four years of the Obama "recovery" (2009 to 2013) native-born employment increased by just 197,800 – up by 0.2%, while immigrant employment increased by 2.2 million, an increase of 9.9%. Most jobs created in this "recovery" have gone to immigrants. And those native-born Americans lucky enough to have jobs also face stagnant wages, in part because of competition from low-wage immigrants. Immigration has always increased U.S. poverty rates. Today native-born Americans are the ones being pushed into poverty by the foreign influx.

Hispanic woman accuses the New York Times of being racist

It's funny when you remember that the New York Times is the newspaper that likes to accuse everyone else of being racist.

Asian men are the least desirable racial group to women

On OkCupid, users can rate each other on a 1 to 5 scale. While Asian women are more likely to give Asian men higher ratings, women of other races — black, Latina, white — give Asian men a rating between 1 and 2 stars less than what they usually rate men. Black and Latino men face similar discrimination from women of different respective races, while white men’s ratings remain mostly high among women of all races. And black women are the least desirable racial group to men. Asian, Latino and white men tend to give black women 1 to 1.5 stars less, while black men’s ratings of black women are more consistent with their ratings of all races of women. But women who are Asian and Latina receive higher ratings from all men — in some cases, even more so than white women.

A black Muslim who beheaded a woman and stabbed another worker at an Oklahoma food plant was fired right before the attack

Alton Alexander Nolen, 30, was terminated from his job at Vaughan Foods processing plant just before the rampage in Moore, Oklahoma, just outside Oklahoma City, said Sgt. Jeremy Lewis of the Moore Police Department. After “he was terminated, he drove to the front of the business, running into a vehicle, exited his vehicle, entered the business, where he encountered the first victim, Colleen Hufford, 54, and began assaulting her with a knife. He did kill Colleen and he did sever her head.” A second woman, identified as 43-year-old Traci Johnson, survived the attack, thanks to the intervention of another co-worker — the company’s chief operating officer Mark Vaughan, an Oklahoma County reserve deputy — who shot and wounded Nolen. Johnson was hospitalized in stable condition with “numerous knife wounds,” according to police. “This off-duty deputy definitely saved Traci’s life,” Lewis said. “This was not going to stop if he didn’t stop it. He’s obviously a hero in this situation. It’s very tragic that someone did lose their life, but it could have gotten a lot worse. This guy was definitely not going to stop. He didn’t stop until he was shot.” Nolen recently had been trying to convert co-workers to Islam, Lewis said. “After conducting interviews with co-workers of Nolen’s, information was obtained that he recently started trying to convert some of his coworkers to the Muslim religion.”

British-born Muslims whose families have lived in the country for several generations are more susceptible to radicalization than recent immigrants, according to new research

A study by the University of London also found that radicalized "British" Muslims tend to be from relatively comfortable, wealthy backgrounds, may have a history of depression and are likely to feel socially isolated. The study asked 600 Muslim men and women in Britain aged 18 to 45 about their lives and views. Their replies were then scored according to the level of sympathy or condemnation they showed towards 16 actions, including the use of suicide bombings. Those who felt the strongest level of hostility towards terrorist actions tended to be frequently in touch with more friends and family members. Recent migrants to Britain were also very hostile. Professor Kamaldeep Bhui, the study's lead author, said: “Migrant groups are much stronger in condemning terrorism. I think the most compelling argument for this is that recent migrants are dealing with a hard struggle and they’ve invested in coming here. They’ve got adversity to deal with and are not in a position where they can indulge some of the ideas of grievance. Whereas people born and brought up here probably take for granted the security and safety where they live and the education and support.” Interestingly, people from poorer backgrounds and who fear their neighborhoods the most are more resistant to radicalization. Those who feel depressed, however, are much more susceptible. Professor Bhui added: “The relationship between radicalization and mental health is complex but we now know depression, alongside poor social networks and isolation, does play a role in vulnerability to radicalization. We spend a great deal of time, effort and money on counter-terrorism – but virtually no attention is given to preventing radicalization before it has a chance to take hold. We must change this approach and stop waiting for terrorism to happen before acting. The violence we’re witnessing in Syria and Iraq are devastating examples of this – whereby seemingly ordinary British citizens have become radicalized enough to leave their lives in the UK and commit themselves to a hopeless future, and in some cases, commit atrocities against innocent people.”

Police charge black man with abduction of missing student

Police know that African-American Jesse Matthew was with University of Virginia student Hannah Graham before she was reported missing earlier in September 2014. But until recently, they had been careful not to call him a suspect or to file charges more serious than reckless driving. Now, however, the 32-year-old is charged with abduction with intent to defile. Police did not say what led to the charges, but they removed articles of clothing from his apartment during a second search. "Through the investigation we determined there were other items we needed to look for and that's why a second search warrant" was executed, says a police captain. "We might not have known about those items during the first search warrant." Matthew is not in custody, and police have raised the possibility that he left the area in a borrowed car. Graham, 18, has been missing since September 13, 2014. She showed up on surveillance video about 1am in the Downtown Mall — a pedestrian strip in Charlottesville — on foot and apparently lost. Later video showed her inside a bar/restaurant with Matthew. They left soon after he bought alcohol.

Over 500 million people worldwide carry a genetic mutation that disables a common metabolic protein called ALDH2

The mutation, which predominantly occurs in people of East Asian descent, leads to an increased risk of heart disease and poorer outcomes after a heart attack. It also causes facial flushing when carriers drink alcohol. Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have learned for the first time specifically how the mutation affects heart health. They did so by comparing heart muscle cells made from induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, from people with the mutation versus those without the mutation. IPS cells are created in the laboratory from specialized adult cells like skin. They are "pluripotent," meaning they can be coaxed to become any cell in the body. "This study is one of the first to show that we can use iPS cells to study ethnic-specific differences among populations," said Joseph Wu, MD, PhD, director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and professor of cardiovascular medicine and of radiology. "These findings may help us discover new therapeutic paths for heart disease for carriers of this mutation," said Wu. "In the future, I believe we will have banks of iPS cells generated from many different ethnic groups. Drug companies or clinicians can then compare how members of different ethnic groups respond to drugs or diseases, or study how one group might differ from another, or tailor specific drugs to fit particular groups." Wu is working to start a biobank at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute of iPS cells from about 1,000 people of many different ethnic backgrounds and health histories. "This is one of my main priorities," he said. "For example, in California, we boast one of the most diverse populations on Earth. We'd like to include male and female patients of major representative ethnicities, age ranges and cardiovascular histories. This will allow us to conduct 'clinical trials in a dish' on these cells, a very powerful new approach, to learn which therapies work best for each group. This would help physicians to understand for the first time disease process at a population level through observing these cells as surrogates."

Mohamed has been revealed as the most popular baby name in Israel – despite authorities trying to keep it hidden from the annual official list

The Population and Immigration Authority has published a list of the 10 most popular boys and girls names of those born in Israel in 2014. However, it has omitted Arabic baby names from the list, including Mohamed which should have topped the boys' list and Ahmed which should have placed ninth.

Quebec Mohawk reserve looks to enforce law requiring anyone living with a non-native to move out

Mohawks are not big fans of interracial mating. In fact, they have a law which allows them to expel any mixed race couple from their community. When white people do this sort of thing it is called racism. I wonder what it is called when non-whites do it?

Miami: A black high school student brutally raped a female teacher at his school after choking her until she passed out, police say

Victor Marshall Nash, 18, is charged with attempted first degree murder, sexual battery, robbery and grand theft for the attack on his teacher at South Dade Senior High School. Detectives say that two hours after the last class ended, Nash approached the teacher and put his arm around her. When she told him "No, stop," he body-slammed her to the ground and smashed her head against the floor. The 6-foot-1, 200lb teen then choked the teacher until she passed out. While she was unconscious, he raped her and left the used condom in her purse, police say. The black teen then threw his victim's cell phone in the garbage and stole her car keys. When the teacher came to, Nash was gone. Police found him five hours later driving the teacher's car nearby. Officers say that Nash confessed to the crimes. Nash's father, Victor Marshall Nash Sr., is a convicted sex offender who has also been arrested in the past on child abuse charges.

Chad looks set to become the 37th country in Africa to outlaw homosexuality after government ministers voted to make same-sex relations a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison

The media are trying to blame this legislation on US evangelical Christians since blaming black Africans would, of course, be racist.

Australian tourist, 21, who was shot in the face in New Orleans is trying to raise $135,000 to reconstruct her face

Amy Matthews, 21, from Perth was shot in the face on Bourbon Street. She lost all but 10 of her teeth, had to have her dead gums removed, her tongue stitched up and a metal plate inserted to support her shattered jaw. Why do people insist on going to violent places like New Orleans?

Obesity and the Third World

Fat is no longer just a developed world problem. Forget those tired old clichés beloved by the aid industry. Today more people in poorer countries go to bed each night having consumed too many calories than go to bed hungry. A landmark report by the Overseas Development Institute earlier in 2014 showed that more than one-third of the world’s adults are overweight – and that almost two-thirds of the world’s overweight people are found in low and middle-income nations. The number of obese or overweight people in developing countries rose from 250 million to almost 1 billion in under three decades, and these rates are rising significantly faster than in rich nations. South Africa typifies this alarming new trend, with nearly double the average global obesity rates, and according to another report has become the world’s third fattest nation. Nearly two-thirds of the population is overweight and, unlike in the developed world, the problem afflicts more women than men. Incredibly, 69.3% of South African females display unhealthy levels of body fat and more than four in 10 are clinically obese (defined as having a BMI higher than 30). More than half the women in Botswana and one in eight Nigerian men are also obese, while Egypt saw one of the fastest rises among women. Obesity is on the rise in poorer nations even among children; more than a quarter of girls and almost one in five boys in South Africa is overweight. Experts say that diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular conditions and diabetes will soon overtake HIV and tuberculosis as the biggest causes of death in South Africa. In the next decade many countries will not be able to afford their health costs, and this includes South Africa.

Nationalism and social class

Razib Khan writes about the recent Scottish referendum where the more affluent seemed to be most opposed to the cause of independence:

But a nation is more than the sum of utils. Would anyone ask that soldiers should sacrifice their lives for productivity gains? Should Britain have yielded to Germany in 1940 because of rational calculations? Or more to the point should the Scots have bowed down before bourgeois, when it seems clear that the odds beforehand were against them? What the global elite seems to not comprehend when facing ‘irrational’ nationalism is that their opponents do not share their premises. In the developed nations of the West there is a sense of ennui due to the lack of motivating spirit. The goal of economic well-being above and beyond basic needs has long been met. Now it is on to the bigger house, the bigger car, and so forth. This rush toward competitive consumption results in short term happiness, but it is often ultimately empty. The cosmopolitan elites may be wealthy in money, but they are also often wealthy in life satisfaction because of the nature of their careers, and the experiences which they can indulge in. They do not comprehend the vacuousness of the lives of the middle to lower classes, because they live lives with verve and excitement. But at some point they will have to face the reality that the 90 percent do not exist purely as means to the ends of the 10 percent. If a system is not sustainable, it will not be sustained.

Miami: A retired Hispanic police officer who nicknamed himself “Batman” and downloaded hundreds of child-porn videos is now accused of video-recording himself molesting a young girl

Juan Roman had been free on bond on federal child-porn charges when detectives, while poring through his computer files, found the disturbing video clips. Roman, 57, has been re-arrested and booked into a Miami-Dade jail, charged with a slew of state counts, including lewd and lascivious molestation of a child. According to court documents, Roman apparently set up a hidden video camera inside his home bathroom, which later captured him molesting a girl who is 7 years old. He is also charged with video voyeurism. A Miami-Dade judge has ordered him held in jail without bond. His arrest stunned and angered former colleagues at the Miami Police Department, where he worked as a detective and as a spotter aboard the department’s helicopter. Roman retired about five years ago. Recently, federal authorities arrested Roman and charged him with possession and distribution of child pornography. According to federal court documents, cyber-crimes investigators in July 2014 pinpointed Roman’s computer as having been used to share illegal sexual images of young girls and boys. In late August 2014, agents raided Roman’s Biscayne Park home. After waiving his right to remain silent, the former cop insisted that he only used the file-sharing software to download music and had “not really seen child pornography,” according to the federal complaint. Investigators noticed another odd detail: Roman sported a Batman logo tattooed on his arm, and his computer hard drive was nicknamed the “Batcave.” Photos on his laptop and hard drive showed him wearing a cape, a mask and Batman underwear in various posed shots, according to documents. But most disturbingly, investigators found over 500 video files “suggestive of child pornography” on Roman’s laptop and hard drive. Detectives, while exhaustively combing through his files, found the videos of Roman molesting the young girl in the bathroom. Federal prosecutors are now asking that a federal judge revoke his bond. Miami-Dade Police’s special victims unit arrested him on the state charges.

A white mother saved her six-month-old mixed-race baby with her last breath, sheltering the infant in the toilet after her black boyfriend shot her in the head and turned the gun on himself

Jessica Arrendale, 33, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head along with Antoine Davis, 30, who police believe shot himself and Arrendale in a murder-suicide in an Atlanta suburb. Police had surrounded Arrendale's townhouse. When they finally entered the home, they found the baby safe inside and rushed her to the hospital to treat her for hypothermia. Arrendale's mother, Teresa Ionniello, said that Arrendale and Davis were together the night that Davis became belligerently drunk and abusive, an episode that sadly had happened many times before in their relationship. Davis chased Arrendale up to the third floor of her home, where Arrendale picked up a baseball bat to defend herself, according to Ionniello, though Davis overpowered her and struck her with the bat. Arrendale then barricaded herself in the bathroom with their six-month-old, Cobie. Davis went to get his firearm, an assault rifle, from the closet, and it was around this time that police arrived at the home. Police evacuated nearby homes as a precaution and attempted to make contact with the armed man inside. When officers made the decision to breach the doors around 1:30 p.m., they found the bodies of Arrendale and Davis, both killed by gunshot wounds to the head, Davis's self-inflicted. Cobie was found in the toilet bowl, covered by her mother's body but safe and alive. Davis's two daughters from a previous marriage, ages 9 and 10, were in the home. Their mother, Tamaira Chesley, described how one daughter later told her that Davis stared at her for a very long time before she asked him, "Daddy, what are you doing?" Chesley says Davis then went upstairs with a gun and the daughter heard Arrendale screaming and then a boom.

A multimillionaire Israeli celebrity rabbi with a following in the United States has accepted a plea bargain in which he admits to attempting to bribe a senior police official, and could now face a one-year prison sentence, Israel's Justice Ministry has said

As part of the plea bargain, the Justice Ministry said that Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto will admit to offering bribes and making payments in 2012 in an attempt to receive classified information on a police investigation into him and one of his charitable organizations. Pinto has also agreed to cooperate with a police investigation into a separate bribery case against another police officer who headed a unit known as Israel's FBI. That officer later resigned. In exchange, the Justice Ministry said, Israeli prosecutors are seeking a reduced, yearlong jail sentence for Pinto, as well as a "significant" fine and seizure of funds. Pinto is considered one of Israel's wealthiest rabbis. The great-grandson of a famous Moroccan-born mystic known as the Baba Sali, he amassed his fortune while serving as spiritual guru to the rich and powerful in Israel, New York, and elsewhere. The Israeli edition of Forbes Magazine ranked him in 2012 as Israel's seventh richest rabbi, with an estimated net worth of about $19 million. But the celebrity and riches also attracted the watchful eyes of law enforcement both in Israel and the United States. In New York, Pinto's congregation has been connected to a U.S. probe into Rep. Michael Grimm, a Republican congressman, for possible campaign finance violations. According to the indictment by Israel's state prosecution, Pinto approached Efraim Bracha, formerly the head of the investigations department in the Israeli police and an adherent of the rabbi, and offered him $200,000 in exchange for information on an investigation involving him. That investigation concerned suspicions of criminal activity by a Pinto associate who ran Hazon Yeshaya, an Israel-based charity serving Holocaust survivors and the needy. Pinto took over the charity, and the charity's U.S. fundraising branch transferred $1.2 million to Pinto and his wife, which were used to pay for flights, hotels, child care, and handouts to relatives and associates, according to the indictment. Bracha, the police official, notified his superiors about the rabbi's bribery offer, and the police began to track Pinto's attempts to extract information from Bracha on his police file. On September 13, 2012, at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv, Pinto's wife gave Bracha's wife an envelope with 100,000 Swiss Francs, or about $107,000, and promised that Pinto would give additional money, the indictment said. In the plea bargain, Pinto agreed to cooperate with police investigators regarding a separate bribery case in which associates of Pinto gave "benefits" to another senior police official, Menashe Arbiv, while he served as head of the national police's elite anti-corruption unit, the Justice Ministry said. Arbiv had previously served as Israel's police representative in the United States, coordinating with U.S. security organizations on investigations.

Contrary to previous literature, world population is unlikely to stop growing in the 21st century

There is an 80% probability that world population, now 7.2 billion, will increase to between 9.6 and 12.3 billion in 2100. Much of the increase is expected to happen in Africa, in part due to higher fertility and a recent slowdown in the pace of fertility decline. In Africa, the population is projected to quadruple from around 1 billion today to 4 billion by the end of the 21st century because birth rates in sub-Saharan Africa have not been going down as fast as had been expected. There is an 80% chance that the population in Africa at the end of the century will be between 3.5 billion and 5.1 billion people.

Why are Asian Americans at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than white Americans, and prone to develop the disease at lower body weights?

One part of this puzzle may lie in the transition from traditional high-fiber, low-fat Asian diets to current westernized diets, which may pose extra risks for those of Asian heritage, says George King, M.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Joslin Diabetes Center and the senior author of the study. A Joslin randomized clinical trial now has demonstrated that both Asian Americans and white Americans at risk of type 2 diabetes who adopted a rigorously controlled traditional Asian diet lowered their insulin resistance. (A leading risk factor for developing the disease, insulin resistance is a condition in which the body struggles to use the hormone insulin, which helps to metabolize sugar.) Moreover, when both groups of participants then switched to consuming typical western fare, the Asian Americans experienced greater increases in insulin resistance than did the white Americans, says Dr. King, senior author of a paper on the study. The 16-week pilot trial was completed by 24 East Asian Americans and 16 white Americans, who had an average age of 34 and were either of normal weight or overweight but not obese. All the volunteers had a family history of type 2 diabetes or another indication of diabetes risk such as gestational diabetes. For the first eight weeks, all the participants ate a traditional high-fiber East Asian diet with 70% of calories from carbohydrates, 15% from protein and 15% from fat, and providing 15 g fiber/1,000 kcal. The food was prepared fresh by local chefs and delivered every two days. For the second eight weeks, 33 of the volunteers (20 Asian Americans and 13 white Americans) transitioned to a typical low-fiber western diet with 50% of calories from carbohydrates, 16% from protein and 34% from fat, and providing 6 g fiber/1,000 kcal. Seven volunteers (4 Asian Americans and 3 white Americans) stayed on the traditional Asian diet to act as controls for the study. Meeting with the trial participants every two weeks, the Joslin team adjusted individual diets as needed to keep their weights relatively steady, so that changes in their metabolism were not driven primarily by changes in weight. The researchers suggested that the combination of high fiber and low fat in the traditional diet may help to explain the decrease in insulin resistance, especially for the Asian American participants. Additionally, those on the traditional Asian diet lowered their LDL cholesterol, a potential benefit for cardiovascular health. "These results were very exciting for Asian Americans," Ka Hei Karen Lau, a Joslin dietitian and certified diabetes educator says. "We are at high risk for diabetes, but we can use diet to help prevent it." Asian Americans have about 20% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than white Americans. More than half of the adults in the world with the disease live in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific, the researchers pointed out, and about 10% of adults in China now suffer from diabetes.

A real-life horror story is playing out in Africa as Ebola spreads, and Obama’s decision to send 3,000 troops to Liberia to combat the virus could very well put Americans at risk of contracting the deadly illness at home

According to the World Health Organization, at least 4,985 people have contracted Ebola and at least 2,461 have died. Several doctors have fallen ill with Ebola, and two of them have died. New reports indicate a Doctors Without Borders staff member has contracted the virus in Liberia and will be evacuated to France for treatment. “You can see that these doctors, who are highly trained people, got themselves infected,” said Dr. Lee Hieb, former president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. “So sending troops into an area, if they’re dealing one-on-one with a patient, they’re not going to be able to protect themselves very well. It’s not easy to [prevent transmission], because you get tired and you get careless and you make some simple mistakes. All it takes is one virus particle.” Dr. Hieb said that quarantine measures should be taken to control the outbreak and to prevent Ebola from coming to America. “You don’t get Ebola from Europe,” she said. “You get Ebola from Africa. And it’s a really simple formula: Don’t let people fly to America if they’ve been to areas where there’s an outbreak. When there’s an outbreak, stop air [traffic] flow.” Hieb added, “If they’re going to use the troops to do population control, which is one of the ways you contain it, basically you just don’t let anybody out. You’d make a ring around where it is, and you’d quarantine the area.” With quarantines in places where the outbreaks are occurring, even if a person infected with Ebola were to try to board a plane to the United States, it would be far more difficult for them to make the journey, she explained. “Could somebody sneak through by going to Pakistan or some place?” she asked. “Yes, potentially. Ebola comes on so rapidly, you would know it. They wouldn’t make it. We should not allow flights from nations that are having Ebola outbreaks.” Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, has warned that the United States must treat Ebola as a wake-up call. “What African troops are doing is shooting people who cross borders or violate quarantine,” Orient said, reacting to news of the U.S. troop deployment. “Is that what we plan to support?” She added, “Africans are already very suspicious of us. How will they react to an army setting up hospitals?” Orient called the planned U.S. deployment a “dubious mission,” warning that the nightmarish scenario could bring Ebola to America. “There is definitely a risk,” she said. “It seems irresponsible to send more people there when the ones already there are having trouble leaving. Probably anyone who has been exposed should be quarantined for 25 days since the last exposure.” Orient echoed the concerns of Elaine Donelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, who said, “I’m just appalled. Judging from this, the United States seems to have a very confused vision of what ‘national security’ means. But whether 3,000 American troops should be sent into that area of the world to deal with that problem, I do not see the justification. Surely there are alternatives in the international health-care networks.” Retired Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin charged that sending American troops to combat Ebola in Liberia is “an absolute misuse of the U.S. military.” Donnelly emphasized that it’s not the purpose of our military. “I am very disappointed to see this announcement,” she said. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger appointed Donnelly to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services for a three-year term from 1984 through 1986. Then, in 1992, President George H. W. Bush appointed her to the Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces. Donnelly explained her concern that the U.S. military is not designed to fight health wars. “Our military people will show compassion in Liberia, as they always do, and they will do everything asked of them,” she said. “Still, health wars are unhealthy for soldiers and all living things. Like oxymoronic ‘peace wars,’ such as the incursion into Bosnia, deployments such as this put our troops in causes having little impact on America’s national security,” she said. American military families will be put at greater risk, Donnelly warned. “Here we have a ‘health war’ that could cost our troops’ health.”

The board of the World Fantasy awards has said that it is “in discussion” about its winners’ statuette, modelled on the late HP Lovecraft, after calls for the trophy to be changed due to Lovecraft’s “fundamental racism”

The racial pandering never ends.

Lighter-skinned Latinos are more likely than darker-skinned Hispanics to identify and vote for Republicans

Also, light-skinned Asian Americans are more likely than dark-skinned Asian Americans to identify and vote for Republicans. If the Republicans want to win elections in the future then it seems that they should make sure that immigrants are as light-skinned as possible. Like, for example, people from Northern Europe.

A village of just 1,000 residents in Switzerland has been forced to raise taxes because an African refugee and her seven children cost the local authority £40,000 in benefits every month

Hagenbuch, in the Swiss canton of Zurich, is understood to be spending close to a third of its total annual budget on the family after they arrived from Eritrea in East Africa three years ago. The massive benefits bill covers day-to-day living expenses such as groceries and cleaning costs, as well as paying for four of the woman's children to be housed in an orphanage and even bills for general entertainment - such as guided tours of local attractions and entry fees for the zoo. The Eritrean woman and her family arrived in Hagenbuch three years ago in possession of a visa allowing her to stay in Switzerland for five years, with the option to extend her stay beyond that date. It is not known if the family had lived elsewhere in Switzerland before moving to the quiet village. Solely to cover the cost of the family's massive benefits bill, the local authority is now planning to raise taxes in the village by a shocking 5%. "I don't know where to turn. I think we have no other choice but to raise taxes," Mayor Therese Schlaepfer said. She added that local residents were justifiably outraged by the spiraling costs of caring for the family, who require a team of social workers to spend six hours a day, six days a week on them alone. When the woman and her family arrived in Hagenbuch three years ago, the municipal government immediately agreed to cover the full cost of their rent and £1,700 a month in living expenses. A short time later the woman sought further financial help, claiming she had become overwhelmed by family commitments and was now struggling to look after all seven of her children. This resulted in four of them being sent to an orphanage - with the local authority paying out £6,000 for each child every month - a total cost of £24,000.

Scientists have found a genetic connection between modern Europeans and Native Americans

It has long been believed that modern Europeans descended from indigenous hunters and Middle Eastern farmers. But a new study suggests all Europeans today have DNA from a third mystery group: Ancient North Eurasians. This group appears to have contributed DNA to present-day Europeans, as well as to the people who travelled across the Bering Strait into the Americas more than 15,000 years ago. The study is based on analysis of ancient DNA which has shifted scientists' ideas of how groups of people migrated across the globe thousands of years ago. It also revealed that ancient Middle Eastern farmers and their European descendants can trace much of their ancestry to a previously unknown, even older lineage called the Basal Eurasians. By comparing nine ancient genomes to those of modern humans, researchers have shown that previously unrecognised groups contributed to the genetic mix in Europe. Northern Europeans have more indigenous hunter DNA, while southern Europeans have more DNA from the Middle East. All Europeans also have DNA from Northern Eurasians. The new group arrived in Europe sometime after the introduction of agriculture, which means the major movements of people into Europe was later than previously thought. Every modern day European has DNA from early European farmers who brought agriculture to Europe, the indigenous hunter-gatherers who were in Europe prior to 8,000 years ago, and these ancient north Eurasians.

Has the N.S.A. been routinely passing along the private communications of Americans to a large and very secretive Israeli military organization known as Unit 8200?

Another example of Jewish power in the United States.

A new study says that a review of all known cases when chimpanzees or bonobos in Africa killed members of their own species shows that violence is a natural part of chimp behavior and not the result of actions by humans that push chimp aggression to lethal attacks

The researchers say that their analysis supports the idea that warlike violence in chimps is a natural behavior that evolved because it can provide more resources or territory to the killers, at little risk. While the study ostensibly is about chimpanzees, it is also the latest salvo in a long and profound argument about the nature of violence in people, as chimpanzees are humans’ closest relatives in the animal world. In studying chimp violence, “We’re trying to make inferences about human evolution,” said Michael L. Wilson, an anthropologist at the University of Minnesota and a co-author and organizer of the study. Male chimps are more likely to kill than females. Killing chimps in other groups is more common than killings within groups. And chimps tend to attack when they have overwhelming odds on their side. Lurking behind the discussion of chimps is a long-running dispute over whether chimp behavior offers insights about human behavior, as well as an even deeper and older philosophical dispute over whether violence and war are natural for human beings.

A black woman convicted of the starvation and torture death of her girlfriend's 9-year-old son has been executed

Lisa Coleman, 38, received a lethal injection after the Supreme Court rejected a last-day appeal to spare her. She was pronounced dead 12 minutes after Texas Department of Criminal officials began administering a lethal dose of pentobarbital. Coleman became the ninth convicted killer and second woman to receive lethal injection in Texas in 2014. Nationally, she's the 15th woman executed since the Supreme Court in 1976 allowed the death penalty to resume. During that same time, nearly 1,400 men have been put to death. Coleman was condemned for the death of Davontae Williams, whose emaciated body was found in July 2004 at the North Texas apartment Coleman shared with his mother, Marcella Williams. Paramedics who found him dead said that they were shocked to learn his age. He weighed 36 pounds, about half that of a normal 9-year-old. A pediatrician later would testify that he had more than 250 distinct injuries, including burns from cigarettes or cigars and scars from ligatures, and that a lack of food made him stop growing. "There was not an inch on his body that not been bruised or scarred or injured," said Dixie Bersano, one of Coleman's trial prosecutors. The boy's mother is serving a life sentence.

The Prime Minister of Thailand says that tourists in his country who wear bikinis are not safe unless they are ugly

He said this after the murder of two British tourists in his country. One more reason to avoid Third World countries. And another reason to prevent people from Third World countries migrating to First World nations such as Britain and the United States.

Biden offends his Jewish masters

Joe Biden got himself in trouble with his Jewish masters over the use of the word "shylocks" to describe greedy lenders who take advantage of US troops. Jewish groups immediately took offense and Biden has apologized for his "poor choice of words."

A large meta-analysis that included 87,040 individuals has identified 23 new genetic variants for prostate cancer susceptibility, bringing the total number of common genetic variants linked to prostate cancer to 100

Together, these 100 genetic variants may explain 33% of inherited risk for prostate cancer in European men, and there is hope that they may eventually be useful in a screening test. The new findings come from a huge global research effort led by scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and the University of Southern California. "The research emphasizes the importance of common genetic variation in the etiology of prostate cancer, and the importance of large-scale international genetics consortia," co–principal investigator Christopher Haiman, ScD, professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, said. For the meta-analysis, data were combined from genome-wide association studies in individuals across several populations, which included European (34,379 case patients and 33,164 control individuals), African (5327 case patients and 5136 control individuals), Japanese (2563 case patients and 4391 control individuals), and Latino (1034 case patients and 1046 control individuals) ancestries. The part of the meta-analysis that focused on studies conducted in people with European ancestry identified 15 variants. Although no risk variants were identified in ancestry-specific analyses across the African, Japanese, or Latino ancestries, 7 new variants were identified across the multi-ethnic ancestries, and 1 was identified from an early-onset analysis in men younger than 55 years. Of the 23 variants, 12 risk variants may appear to have functional significance and have the potential to be targeted for therapeutic intervention. The researchers estimated that together, 100 genetic variants that are now known may explain 33% of inherited risk for prostate cancer in European men. In addition, the 10% of men at highest risk are close to 3 times more likely to develop prostate cancer compared with the average individual; the top 1% are approximately 6 times more likely to develop the disease. The 100 genetic variants correlate with risk for prostate cancer in European men. "Since Caucasians in the United States are generally of European descent, these genetic variants can be used to determine risk for prostate cancer in Caucasian Americans. However, different genetic variants are expected for African Americans and Latinos, and these may not overlap with the genetic variants for European men," Dr. Park said.

Researchers have found evidence that genetic factors may contribute to the development of language during infancy

Scientists from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol worked with colleagues around the world to discover a significant link between genetic changes near the ROBO2 gene and the number of words spoken by children in the early stages of language development. Children produce words at about 10 to 15 months of age and our range of vocabulary expands as we grow - from around 50 words at 15 to 18 months, 200 words at 18 to 30 months, 14,000 words at six-years-old and then over 50,000 words by the time we leave secondary school. The researchers found the genetic link during the ages of 15 to 18 months when toddlers typically communicate with single words only before their linguistic skills advance to two-word combinations and more complex grammatical structures. The results shed further light on a specific genetic region on chromosome 3, which has been previously implicated in dyslexia and speech-related disorders. The ROBO2 gene contains the instructions for making the ROBO2 protein. This protein directs chemicals in brain cells and other neuronal cell formations that may help infants to develop language but also to produce sounds. The ROBO2 protein also closely interacts with other ROBO proteins that have previously been linked to problems with reading and the storage of speech sounds. Dr Beate St Pourcain, who jointly led the research with Professor Davey Smith at the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, said: "This research helps us to better understand the genetic factors which may be involved in the early language development in healthy children, particularly at a time when children speak with single words only, and strengthens the link between ROBO proteins and a variety of linguistic skills in humans." Dr Claire Haworth, one of the lead authors, based at the University of Warwick, commented: "In this study we found that results using DNA confirm those we get from twin studies about the importance of genetic influences for language development. This is good news as it means that current DNA-based investigations can be used to detect most of the genetic factors that contribute to these early language skills."

Neuroscientists have found that a gene mutation that arose more than half a million years ago may be key to humans' unique ability to produce and understand speech

Researchers from MIT and several European universities have shown that the human version of a gene called Foxp2 makes it easier to transform new experiences into routine procedures. When they engineered mice to express humanized Foxp2, the mice learned to run a maze much more quickly than normal mice. The findings suggest that Foxp2 may help humans with a key component of learning language - transforming experiences, such as hearing the word "glass" when we are shown a glass of water, into a nearly automatic association of that word with objects that look and function like glasses, says Ann Graybiel, an MIT Institute Professor, member of MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and a senior author of the study. "This really is an important brick in the wall saying that the form of the gene that allowed us to speak may have something to do with a special kind of learning, which takes us from having to make conscious associations in order to act to a nearly automatic-pilot way of acting based on the cues around us," Graybiel says. This study "provides new ways to think about the evolution of Foxp2 function in the brain," says Genevieve Konopka, an assistant professor of neuroscience at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center who was not involved in the research. "It suggests that human Foxp2 facilitates learning that has been conducive for the emergence of speech and language in humans. The observed differences in dopamine levels and long-term depression in a region-specific manner are also striking and begin to provide mechanistic details of how the molecular evolution of one gene might lead to alterations in behavior."

The amazing variety of human faces - far greater than that of most other animals - is the result of evolutionary pressure to make each of us unique and easily recognizable, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, scientists

Our highly visual social interactions are almost certainly the driver of this evolutionary trend, said behavioral ecologist Michael J. Sheehan, a postdoctoral fellow in UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Many animals use smell or vocalization to identify individuals, making distinctive facial features unimportant, especially for animals that roam after dark, he said. But humans are different. "Humans are phenomenally good at recognizing faces; there is a part of the brain specialized for that," Sheehan said. "The idea that social interaction may have facilitated or led to selection for us to be individually recognizable implies that human social structure has driven the evolution of how we look," said coauthor Michael Nachman, a population geneticist, professor of integrative biology and director of the UC Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. In the study, Sheehan said, "we asked, 'Are traits such as distance between the eyes or width of the nose variable just by chance, or has there been evolutionary selection to be more variable than they would be otherwise; more distinctive and more unique?'" As predicted, the researchers found that facial traits are much more variable than other bodily traits, such as the length of the hand, and that facial traits are independent of other facial traits, unlike most body measures. People with longer arms, for example, typically have longer legs, while people with wider noses or widely spaced eyes don't have longer noses. Both findings suggest that facial variation has been enhanced through evolution. Finally, they compared the genomes of people from around the world and found more genetic variation in the genomic regions that control facial characteristics than in other areas of the genome, a sign that variation is evolutionarily advantageous. "All three predictions were met: facial traits are more variable and less correlated than other traits, and the genes that underlie them show higher levels of variation," Nachman said. "Lots of regions of the genome contribute to facial features, so you would expect the genetic variation to be subtle, and it is. But it is consistent and statistically significant. Genetic variation tends to be weeded out by natural selection in the case of traits that are essential to survival," Nachman said. "Here it is the opposite; selection is maintaining variation. All of this is consistent with the idea that there has been selection for variation to facilitate recognition of individuals." They also compared the human genomes with recently sequenced genomes of Neanderthals and Denisovans and found similar genetic variation, which indicates that the facial variation in modern humans must have originated prior to the split between these different lineages.

Muscle mass is a better predictor of longevity than is BMI

Researchers analyzed BMI and muscle mass data from more than 3,600 seniors in a long-term study. And they tracked which seniors had died, a decade later. Turns out that BMI wasn't much good at predicting chance of death. But muscle mass was: more muscle meant better odds of survival.

The African continent, which had 1.2 billion people in 2013, will have 2.3 billion in 2050, and 4.2 billion by century’s end

Patrick J. Buchanan writes about the disintegration of Europe.

A new study reveals that people find the smell of others with similar political opinions to be attractive, suggesting that one of the reasons why so many spouses share similar political views is because they were initially and subconsciously attracted to each other's body odor

During the study, 146 participants rated the attractiveness of the body odor of unknown strong liberals and strong conservatives, without ever seeing the individuals whose smells they were evaluating. "People could not predict the political ideology of others by smell if you asked them, but they differentially found the smell of those who aligned with them more attractive. So I believe smell conveys important information about long-term affinity in political ideology that becomes incorporated into a key component of subconscious attraction," said Dr. Rose McDermott, lead author of the study.

According to the United Nations, Sweden received the most asylum applications per person in the world from 2009 through 2013

Sweden expects more than 90,000 asylum seekers in 2014, a huge number in a country of only 10 million people. The share of Swedes born abroad was 16% in 2013 compared with 11% in 2000.

Paris police have arrested a convicted anti-Semite and radical black power activist after he arrived in France to promote a new book

Kemi Seba, head of the French branch of the New Black Panther Party, was detained after a public appearance at the Main d'Or theatre in the French capital. A magistrate then ordered his incarceration because Kemi Seba, whose real name is Stellio Capo Chichi, was wanted for having violated the terms of a 2009 suspended sentence for violence. He has been living in Senegal and had told followers that he would tour France to promote his recent book. The theatre where he had appeared is used by the controversial black comedian known as Dieudonne, who has been repeatedly convicted of anti-Semitism. Kemi Seba is no stranger to brushes with the law. Two groups that he founded - Tribu K and later Jeunesse Kemi Saba - were dissolved by the French justice ministry for inciting "racist and anti-Semitic" ideology. In October 2012 he was expelled from Switzerland for fear he would incite violence.

Barack Obama was not ready to be president, and still isn’t

Michael Goodwin writes about the failures of the Obama presidency.

Liberal Jewish voters: 70% of Jews voted for Obama in 2012, about the same as Hispanics, and were exceeded in their enthusiasm mainly by African-Americans

Are the Hasidim and other ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups growing in power at the expense of liberal Jews?

Higher intelligence seems to lead to lower frequency of sexual intercourse

Is it because highly intelligent men lack the required social skills?

If you're a black man or woman or Asian man, you're going to have a tougher time getting a date on OKCupid

Users of the popular dating site have a clear bias against certain races, according to a new blog post by OKCupid co-founder Christian Rudder. Rudder looked at millions of OKCupid interactions between 2009 and 2014, involving more than 25 million people, and charted out the racial and gender preferences he found. To do this, he studied how people rated potential dates in QuickMatch, a feature that shows you profiles one at a time and asks you to rate them on a scale of one to five or skip them. Asian men, black men and black women got the worst ratings, while Asian women and Latina women fared the best. It's not just people on OKCupid who feel this way. The results are pretty much the same as data taken from other dating sites.

Why do you think Pakistani parents want their daughters to wear headscarves or at least dress modestly?

Peter Frost looks at the abuse of white girls by Muslim men in places like Rotherham, England.

Connecticut home invasion rapist, who murdered a mother and her two daughters, claims that his rights are violated because he isn't fed a kosher diet on death row

Steven Hayes, who is on death row, describes himself in his federal lawsuit as an orthodox Jew and claims he's asked for a kosher diet since 2013. Hayes was convicted of capital felony, murder, sexual assault and other crimes and sentenced to death. He killed Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters Hayley, 17, and 11-year-old Michaela, after a night of torment in their home.

Obama's approval has slipped among key parts of his coalition — the women, youth and Latino voters most responsible for putting him into office

Women surveyed said that they disapprove of Obama by a 50% to 44% margin — nearing an all-time low in the poll. It’s almost the reverse of the 55% to 44% breakdown for Obama among female voters in 2012, according to exit polls. His approval rating among women has slipped four percentage points from a year ago and 16 points since his second inaugural in January 2013, when his approval was 60% among the group. Among younger voting-age Americans, Obama’s approval rating stood at 43%. That marked an 11-point drop since June 2014 among those 18 to 29 years old. Voters younger than 30 supported Obama by 60% to 37% in 2012. Meanwhile, support for Obama among Hispanics stood at 57%t, which is down markedly from the first half of 2013, when approval among Latinos soared to about 75%. Obama’s support remains solid among African Americans, with 87% approving of his job performance. That is a modest erosion from the 93% of black voters who supported his reelection.

Two policemen are to be suspended for charging a one-year-old child with "coercion" ahead of a by-election in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh

A police report noted that "10-12-month-old Nazim", and his father Yasin, could disrupt the peace of the poll. Police often prepare lists of potential trouble-makers and criminals ahead of local elections and send them to the relevant authorities and courts. In 2011, a five-year-old boy in Bihar state was charged with disrupting the peace during village council elections. Police later said that it was a case of mistaken identity and they meant to charge his elder brother with disorderly conduct. And in 2006, the Bihar police charged a six-year-old girl with attacking them and helping her father escape from police custody.

People with blood type AB may be more likely to develop memory loss in later years than people with other blood types, according to a study

AB is the least common blood type, found in about 4% of the U.S. population. The study found that people with AB blood were 82% more likely to develop the thinking and memory problems that can lead to dementia than people with other blood types. Previous studies have shown that people with type O blood have a lower risk of heart disease and stroke, factors that can increase the risk of memory loss and dementia. The study was part of a larger study (the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke, or REGARDS Study) of more than 30,000 people followed for an average of 3.4 years. In those who had no memory or thinking problems at the beginning, the study identified 495 participants who developed thinking and memory problems, or cognitive impairment, during the study. They were compared to 587 people with no cognitive problems. People with AB blood type made up 6% of the group who developed cognitive impairment, which is higher than the 4% found in the population. Researchers also looked at blood levels of factor VIII, a protein that helps blood to clot. High levels of factor VIII are related to higher risk of cognitive impairment and dementia. People in this study with higher levels of factor VIII were 24 percent more likely to develop thinking and memory problems than people with lower levels of the protein. People with AB blood had a higher average level of factor VIII than people with other blood types.

Two Algerians were attacked by a gang of Jewish youths in a Parisian suburb as they carried out deliveries to restaurants in the area

The two victims, high school students aged 17, were delivering bread on Sunday evening in the Saint-Mande suburb that lies southeast of the capital when the became involved in an altercation with local Jewish residents. One of the injured teens said that the incident started with a simple exchange of looks. However, as tempers flared dozens of other young people reportedly joined in the fray, kicking, punching, and butting the two delivery boys. One of the victims suffered a head injury, bruising to the scalp, and bruises on the forehead and left shoulder. The other teenager, who regularly delivers bread to restaurants that is baked in his parents’ bakery, said that the attacks were racially motivated. “They told us dirty Arab, you have nothing to do at home,” he said. “Here is our neighborhood.” According to the report, a Polish friend of the victims who tried to help was also attacked. A large number of police arrived at the scene and arrested three people, two of them minors. All were released due to lack of evidence. All three of the victims were briefly hospitalized and lodged complaints with police. In July 2014, thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators rioted in Paris in protest against Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip. During the disturbances Molotov cocktails were thrown at synagogues. The violence has seen an increase in activity by France’s Jewish Defense League.

Monitoring early stage prostate cancer instead of treating it may not be appropriate for all patients, especially black men, a new study indicates

According to background information with the study, there is currently controversy among oncologists over the best way to handle early stage prostate cancer, with some experts suggesting that regular monitoring — known as watchful waiting — of the disease is the best approach because it avoids over-treatment. But this new study suggests that watchful waiting may not be suitable for all men with early stage prostate cancer, especially black patients. “We know that African-American men have more aggressive prostate cancer than Caucasian men,” Dr. Kosj Yamoah, chief resident in the department of radiation oncology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said. “Our study shows that African-American men who are diagnosed with a low-grade cancer at first — the cancers that are sometimes watched rather than treated — are more likely to develop aggressive disease sooner than Caucasian men,” he said. The researchers analyzed the medical records of men who were confirmed to have low-grade prostate cancer and had surgery to remove part or all of their prostate. Among these patients, blacks were more likely to have cancer progression and worse outcomes than whites. Seven years after surgery, rates of disease control were 90% among whites and 79% among blacks, the study found. The researchers are still searching for molecular clues that would help identify black prostate cancer patients who have the highest risk of disease progression and those most likely to benefit from watchful waiting.

All of the Ashkenazi Jews alive today can trace their roots to a group of about 330 people who lived 600 to 800 years ago

An international team of scientists sequenced the complete genomes of 128 healthy Ashkenazi Jews and compared each of those sequences with the others, as well as with with the DNA of 26 Flemish people from Belgium. Their analysis allowed them to trace the genetic roots of this population to a founding group in the Middle Ages. About 80% of modern Jews have Ashkenazi ancestry, according to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Albert Einstein was an Ashkenazi Jew, as were Gertrude Stein and Carl Sagan. Steven Spielberg and Scarlett Johansson are also Ashkenazi Jews, along with three current members of the U.S. Supreme Court (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan). Only 46% to 50% of the DNA in the 128 samples originated with the group of people who were also the ancestors of the Flemish people in the study. Those ancient people split off from the ancestors of today’s Middle Easterners more than 20,000 years ago, with a founding group of about 3,500 to 3,900 people, according to the study. The rest of the Ashkenazi genome comes from the Middle East, the researchers reported. Today there are more than 10 million Ashkenazi Jews around the world, including 2.8 million in Israel, according to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A man's likelihood of accumulating fat around his heart - an important indicator of heart disease risk - may be better determined if doctors consider his race and ethnicity, as well as where on his body he's building up excess fat, reveals an international evaluation led by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health

The findings indicate that it may be useful to take racial and ethnic differences into account when designing programs to reduce obesity because what works for one man might not be as beneficial for another. This analysis was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). "If you are an African American man and carry excess weight mainly around the mid-section, then you have a higher likelihood of more fat around the heart than if you gain weight fairly evenly throughout your body," said lead author Samar R. El Khoudary, Ph.D., M.P.H., assistant professor in Pitt Public Health's Department of Epidemiology. "But the reverse is true for Koreans - their heart disease risk is greater with overall weight gain. Knowing this can help doctors specify the right physical training for each racial ethnic group to reduce their heart disease risk." Dr. El Khoudary's analysis relied on data from the "Electron-Beam Tomography, Risk Factor Assessment Among Japanese and U.S. Men in the Post-World War II Birth Cohort Study," also known as the ERA JUMP study. It is a population-based study of men enrolled between 2002 and 2006 who were ages 40 to 49 and free of cardiovascular disease, type-1 diabetes and other severe diseases at the time of enrollment. The recent analysis took a closer look at 1,199 men in the study who were white or black from Allegheny County, Japanese-American from Hawaii, Japanese or Korean. The study looked at the amount of fat around the heart called ectopic cardiovascular fat. Higher volumes of this fat are associated with greater risk of heart disease. For white men, an increase in body mass index, or BMI, which is a measure of overall body fat, and abdominal fat are equally likely to indicate an increase in fat around the heart. Compared to white men, black men who carry disproportionally more weight around their mid-section are at similar risk of having more fat around their hearts. Increases in BMI have lower impact. Japanese and Japanese American men are also at similar risk of having more fat around their hearts if they have more fat in their abdomens, with BMI having less of an impact. Korean men with higher BMIs have a higher likelihood of fat around the heart, whereas abdominal fat matters less. "What we now need to determine is whether concentrating efforts to reduce overall body fat or fat in the abdomen will actually decrease fat around the heart more in people of certain racial or ethnic groups," said Dr. El Khoudary. "Such a long-term evaluation could help in designing race-specific heart disease prevention strategies."

More people from Africa have entered the United States in the last decade than were forced to come to America during more than three centuries of the slave trade

Between 2000 and 2010, the number of legal black African immigrants in the United States about doubled to around one million and more black Africans arrived in this country on their own than were imported directly to North America during the more than three centuries of the slave trade. These large migrations have increased concerns about the entry of African immigrants into the United States, since the deadly Ebola epidemic has ravaged the western part of the continent. New York is home to the largest proportion of African immigrants and about a third of black New Yorkers were born abroad, mostly in the Caribbean. Africans constitute about 4% of the city’s foreign-born population, but as much as 10% in the Bronx and from 2000 to 2011 the African-born population increased 39% to 128,000. But other estimates suggest that many more are living in New York and America by having overstayed their visas or entered illegally. Kim Nichols, an executive director of the African Services Committee, says that African immigrants have been doubling every 10 years since 1980. African immigrants have also gone to California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Texas and Virginia.

New York City schools: While black and Hispanic students did better on the math and reading exams in 2014 compared with 2013, the achievement gap still worsened, since white and Asian kids saw bigger increases

Pro-charter school group Families for Excellent Schools found that no black or Hispanic students passed the standardized tests — based on the more stringent Common Core standards — at 90 schools with diverse student bodies in New York City. Education Department officials have struggled for years to close the persistent achievement gap faced by black and Hispanic students in the New York City’s public schools. At 31 city schools with a combined enrollment of 1,065 black students, none passed the state math exam. At another 28 schools, zero out of 613 Hispanic students passed the math test. State reading exams saw similar results. Citywide, 18.5% of black students and 23.2% of Hispanic students were proficient on state math exams in 2014, compared with an overall proficiency rate of 34.2%. Reading scores showed a similar gap. The schools where no minority students passed the tests were a mixed group. Some, such as Public School 114 in Belle Harbor, Queens, were relatively high-performing schools that enrolled few black and Hispanic students. Others were troubled schools that struggled to pass any students at all, such as the School for the Urban Environment in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Mexican priest admits killing 12-year-old girl after she ended their affair for teenage boy

A perverted Mexican pastor killed his 12-year-old lover after she ended their two-year affair for a teenage boy, police have said. Christian minister Jose Baltazar Hernandez Molina, 31, moved into the town of Maclovio Rojas, in the north-western Mexican state of Baja California, after being deported as an illegal alien from the United States. He was able to become pastor of the local church and later seduced 12-year-old Adriana Sanchez Beltran, investigators say. The pair had a two-year affair but the relationship ended when Adriana refused to let him move into her home and that she wanted to see someone her own age. When Molina found out she was seeing a teenage boy, he flew into a jealous age, police say. He tracked her down in his pick-up truck and dragged her into the vehicle where he attacked her and then killed her by breaking her neck. A post-mortem exam found the young girl's body was entirely covered with bruises where he had beaten her before finally killing her. Yet when arrested Molina claimed it was an accident and that he had not meant to hurt her. Mexican Deputy Against Organized Crime, Miguel Angel Guerrero, said that the priest had admitted killing her in a jealous rage and now felt sorry about what happened. He said: "He has been charged with murder and rape because the girl was underage. We are also investigating who else knew about his relationship and why they did nothing." If convicted, the priest faces up to 50 years in jail.

The Sephardi chief rabbi in the Israeli city of Petach Tikvah has been refusing to perform marriages for Ethiopian Jews in his community

Saying that their Jewishness is questionable, Rabbi Binyamin Atias has rejected the Falash Mura, whose ancestors converted from Judaism more than 200 years ago, and has not allowed them to register in his office for marriage certificates. Falash Mura undergo a state-sponsored conversion after they arrive in Israel. Couples are no longer required to register for marriage in the community in which they live, and many couples from Petach Tikvah register in Tel Aviv, which is located nearby. About 10,000 Israelis of Ethiopian descent live in the central Israeli city. Israel’s Chief Rabbinate said in a statement that the issue will be investigated. It also said that rabbis who register marriage must serve all Jewish Israeli citizens, including Ethiopians, without discrimination. The Tzohar rabbinical organization expressed its “deep disappointment” with the decision by Atias. “This insensitivity is reflective of a broader problem facing Israeli society where the Rabbinate claims to be acting in the name of halachic stringency and ends up tearing apart Israeli Jewish society,” Tzohar chairman and founder Rabbi David Stav said in a statement. “If this trend continues, the tragic reality is that there will no longer be a Jewish majority in Israel.”

During a California gubernatorial debate against Republican Neel Kashkari, California Governor Jerry Brown (D) revealed that nearly 30% of the state's schoolchildren are either illegal immigrants or do not speak English

Brown, who said that illegal immigrants from Mexico were "all welcome in California," praised his administration's immigration policies. He said that California is "setting the pace" on immigration laws and mentioned bills he signed that gave driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, made California a sanctuary state (Trust Act), and granted in-state tuition to illegal immigrants (CA DREAM Act). Brown then said that these policies were necessary because "about 30%" of schoolchildren in California are "either undocumented or don't speak English." A California Immigrant Policy Center report found that there are 2.6 million illegal immigrants in California (or 26% of all immigrants) while illegal immigrants make up nearly 10% of the state's workforce, including "38% of the agriculture industry and 14% of the construction industry." According to The New York Times, 28% of Californians were born outside the United States in 2012 and, according to Pew Research, "Latinos make up nearly 40% of the state's population and have made California 'only the second state, behind New Mexico, where whites are not the majority and Latinos are the plurality.'"

Another Jewish NBA owner to sell team because of racist emails against blacks

For Atlanta Hawks controlling owner Bruce Levenson, "a light bulb went off." In a 2012 email addressing the troubles the franchise faced in attracting more affluent white season-ticket holders, Levenson said that he had taken a look around Philips Arena and noticed a few things. First, the audience was 70% black, he wrote. But that wasn't all. The stadium's bars were 90% black. There were few fathers and sons at the games. The cheerleaders were black. The music played in the arena was hip-hop, and the after-game concerts were either rap or gospel acts. "Then i start looking around at other arenas. It is completely different. Even (Washington) DC with its affluent black community never has more than 15 pct black audience," he wrote. Now, he's losing his franchise because of the email. Levenson, who serves as managing partner and is the team's representative on the NBA Board of Governors, announced in a statement that he will sell his controlling stake in the team after an "e-mail two years ago that was inappropriate and offensive."

Networks of radicals are re-emerging in British mosques and elsewhere to encourage and facilitate Muslims wanting to travel to Syria and Iraq to fight for Islamic State (Isis)

Communities of radicals recruiting young Muslims born in Britain are thought to include preachers, battle-hardened returning fighters and jihad sympathisers. Examples of on the ground recruitment have been seen in Cardiff and Birmingham – amid wider evidence that Britain is being specifically targeted by those with links to Isis in Europe. Abdullah, 19, who tweets as @Jihadwitness – and says that he is an Isis supporter based in another European country – said that Britain was of interest because it has a large minority of Salafis. He was one of the first people to put the video of the murder of James Foley on Twitter. The Salafist strands in Islam tend to promote a fundamentalist outlook, a strict adherence to sharia law and a belief that it is incumbent on believers to fight holy war, or jihad. Abdullah said that he believed active recruitment was now taking place in mosques and other centers across Europe following Isis successes and their announcement that they had established a theological state, or caliphate (khilafah) spanning Syria and Iraq. "We're really excited to come in and join the khilafah. I know many brothers who have said the recruitment has been booming ever since the announcement [of the caliphate's establishment] was made because this is what all these groups fought for for years and years," he said. A steady stream of Muslims born in Britain continue to make their way to Syria, according to counter-terrorism sources. An estimated 500 to 600 individuals are known to have travelled to the country, and 250 have since returned. Anti-terrorism investigators have growing concerns that a minority of those who return might be planning to attack Britain – under the direction of the Isis leadership or in a lone action. According to figures from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), Britain has the second largest number of foreign fighters in Syria out of any European country. If the British were smart and sane they would start kicking Muslims out of their country and stop other Muslims from moving in.

Was Jack the Ripper a Jewish immigrant from Poland?

On the eve of the release of his book Naming Jack The Ripper, a British businessman claims that he has ascertained the real name of 19th century serial murder Jack the Ripper using 126-year-old DNA extracted from blood found on the shawl of one of his victims. In an article written for "The Daily Mail", businessman and armchair detective Russell Edwards, 48, claims that the man responsible for the five murders in East London in 1888 was Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jew who had moved to London in the early 1880s.

Black crime rates are much higher than they were before the Civil Rights movement

John Derbyshire says that we should promote race realism, spreading the understanding that innate racial differences — and black/nonblack differences most of all — are real and socially consequential instead of blaming the social and economic problems of blacks on white people.

In August 2014, total employment rose by 16,000 while native-born American employment fell by 643,000

Immigrant employment rose by 659,000 during that period. From January 2009 to August 2014, foreign-born employment rose by 2.945 million while native-born American employment rose by only 1.202 million. In February 2009 – Obama’s first full month in office – 14.9% of all individuals working in the United States were foreign-born, according to that month’s Household employment survey. In August 2014, the immigrant share was a record 16.8%. It is possible that as many as 657,000 native-born Americans may have lost jobs due to immigration. Immigrant employment is growing 3 times faster than native-born American employment.

Obama's presidency is not too good for black workers

While unemployment nationwide is 6.1%, the unemployment rate for black Americans at 11.4% is more than double the rate for white Americans, who have an unemployment rate of 5.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The unemployment rate for Latino Americans, at 7.5%, is also lower than the unemployment rate for blacks. For black Americans, age 16 and older, seasonally adjusted, the unemployment rate between July and August 2014 stayed the same at 11.4%, and that is up from the 10.7% rate in June. The last time the black unemployment rate was 11.4% was more than 5 years ago, in October 2008. It was at a low 7.6% in August 2007.

Workforce participation is at a 36-year low at 62.8%, with over 92 million Americans over age 16 not participating in the workforce

The workforce participation rate would probably be higher if it weren't for the large number of immigrants living in the United States.

A teenager married a dog during a lavish Indian wedding in front of at least 70 guests

Mangli Munda, 18, from a remote part of eastern India, was told by village elders that marrying the confused canine would ward off an evil spell. A local guru told her parents the teenager possessed ill-luck and that marrying a man would bring destruction to the family and her community. The baffled dog, Sheru, was brought to the wedding in a chauffeur driven car and welcomed by revellers. Mangli, who has not been to school, said that she was not happy to wed a dog, but insisted it will help change her fortunes. The hesitant bride said: "I am marrying a dog because the village elders believe that my evil spell will be passed on to the dog. After that is done, the man I will marry will have a long life." Mangli's father Sri Amnmunda agreed and even found a stray dog named Sheru as a match for his daughter. He said: "The village elders told us that we should organize the wedding as soon as we can. We had to make sure that the evil spell is destroyed. And marrying a dog is the only way to get rid of the bad luck." And amazingly, this not the first time that a local girl has wed a dog in the village. Sri added: "Many weddings like this have taken place in our village and also the other neighboring villages. This is a custom that we thoroughly believe in." According to the village's customs, the marriage will not affect Mangli’s life, and she will be free to marry again later without divorcing the dog. "My villagers say that many girls like me have followed this ritual and they have gotten rid of their evil spells and are living happy lives now," said Mangli. "I will also be free to marry a man of my dreams after after the evil spell is over." At the wedding ceremony, people danced to traditional drumming, while around 70 relatives and local villagers attended the wedding. "Apart from the fact that the groom is a dog, we followed all customs. We respect the dog as much as we would respect a normal groom," said Mangli's mother Seems Devi. "We had to spend money on this wedding in the same way as we would in a normal wedding. But that is the only way we can get rid of her bad luck and ensure the benevolence of the village."

Interesting study of racial disparities in shootings

Participants in an innovative Washington State University study of deadly force were more likely to feel threatened in scenarios involving black people. But when it came time to shoot, participants were biased in favor of black suspects, taking longer to pull the trigger against them than against armed white or Hispanic suspects. The last comprehensive look at the racial makeup of justifiable and non-justifiable shootings was a 2001 study using more than two decades of U.S. Bureau of Justice data. And while statistics show that black suspects are shot at more frequently than white suspects, the 2001 study also found that black suspects were also as likely to shoot at police as be shot at. The new study is a follow-up to one in which researchers found that active police officers, military personnel and the general public took longer to shoot black suspects than white or Hispanic suspects. Participants were also more likely to shoot unarmed white suspects than black or Hispanic ones and more likely to fail to fire at armed black suspects. In other words, there was a significant bias favoring blacks where decisions to shoot were concerned. When confronted by an armed white person, participants took an average of 1.37 seconds to fire back. Confronted by an armed black person, they took 1.61 seconds to fire and were less likely to fire in error. The 240-millisecond difference may seem small, but it’s enough to be fatal in a shooting.