Israel has refused to include a novel about a love affair between a Jewish woman and a Palestinian man in the country's high-school curriculum over concerns that it could encourage intermarriage between Jews and gentiles

The rejection of Borderlife, a novel published in 2014, created an uproar in Israel, with critics accusing the government of censorship. The rejection also touched on the climate of mistrust between Arabs and Jews, which has deepened during the current wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence. The ministry said that a panel had debated adding Borderlife to the high-school reading curriculum but decided against it. Israeli media said that teachers had requested its inclusion on the student reading lists. Earlier, a letter by ministry official Dalia Fenig, said that the book, which in 2015 received Israel's prestigious Bernstein literary prize, was excluded because its content was deemed unfit for high school students. "Adolescent youth tend to romanticize and don't have, in many cases, the systematic point of view that includes considerations about preserving the identity of the nation and the significance of assimilation," Fenig was quoted. She also said that the timing, coinciding with the current outburst of violence, was not right, fearing tensions could be inflamed in classrooms over the book. More than three months of Israeli-Palestinian violence has killed 21 Israelis and 131 Palestinians, sending tensions between Arabs and Jews soaring.

A black Muslim has been arrested in connection with a suspected arson at a mosque on Christmas Day 2015, but the motive for the crime remains a mystery, with the suspect maintaining that he was a regular at the mosque

A spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has confirmed that the suspect, 37-year-old Gary Nathaniel Moore of Houston, has been arrested. Moore has appeared in court and bond was set at $100,000. According to a charging instrument released by the Harris County District Clerk, Moore told investigators at the scene that he has attended the storefront mosque for five years, coming five times per day to pray seven days per week.

The authorities in Pennsylvania have announced criminal charges against Bill Cosby stemming from a woman’s accusation that he drugged and sexually abused her at his home in a suburb north of Philadelphia, in 2004

Kevin Steele, Montgomery County’s district attorney-elect, said that Cosby faces a felony charge of aggravated indecent assault. He said that the investigation involved a “relationship” between Cosby and the woman, Andrea Constand, that came about from her work with the basketball team at Temple University, Cosby’s alma mater. Cosby became a “mentor” and “friend” to Constand, Steele said, and at one point she went to his home in Cheltenham Township. According to the accusations, Cosby urged her to take pills and drink wine until she was unable to move, after which he committed the assault. “The evidence is strong and sufficient to proceed,” Steele said. He added: “A person in that state cannot give consent.” The criminal charges come after a year of tumult in his career as dozens of women came forward to accuse Cosby, who was once revered as a father figure and popular moralist, of sexually abusing them. Many of those women cheered the decision to prosecute him. Dozens of women have come forward in recent years to accuse Cosby of sexual misconduct and assault.

Isis fatwa on female sex slaves tells Islamic militants how and when they can rape captured women and girls

Isis has released a fatwa detailing how and when its fighters can rape female sex slaves – “one of the inevitable consequences of jihad”. The document, drawn up by the Islamic terrorist group’s “Committee of Research and Fatwas”, was revealed after being discovered among a huge trove of documents seized by US special forces in Syria. It is one of many self-proclaimed rulings Isis has made to enforce its interpretation of Islamic law, with others governing the treatment of “infidels” and revenue streams from stolen oil and antiquities. The fatwa on female slaves was released in response to a question on unspecified “violations” by Isis fighters owning female slaves. Isis has released previous documents attempting to justify its enslavement and rape of women since the kidnap of thousands of Yazidi women and girls in Iraq in 2014, managing the subject of slavery through its department of “war spoils”. Some who managed to escape told Human Rights Watch how fighters separated young women and girls from their families and moved them “in an organized and methodical fashion to various places in Iraq and Syria” to be sold or given to Islamic militants to be repeatedly raped and abused.

A team of geneticists from Trinity College Dublin and archaeologists from Queen's University Belfast has sequenced the first genomes from ancient Irish humans, and the information buried within is already answering pivotal questions about the origins of Ireland's people and their culture

The team sequenced the genome of an early farmer woman, who lived near Belfast some 5,200 years ago, and those of three men from a later period, around 4,000 years ago in the Bronze Age, after the introduction of metalworking. Ireland has intriguing genetics. It lies at the edge of many European genetic gradients with world maxima for the variants that code for lactose tolerance, the western European Y chromosome type, and several important genetic diseases including one of excessive iron retention, called hemochromatosis. However, the origins of this heritage are unknown. The only way to discover the genetic past is to sequence genomes directly from ancient people, by embarking on a type of genetic time travel. Migration has been a hot topic in archaeology. Opinion has been divided on whether the great transitions in the British Isles, from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one based on agriculture and later from stone to metal use, were due to local adoption of new ways or whether these influences were derived from influxes of new people. These ancient Irish genomes each show unequivocal evidence for massive migration. The early farmer has a majority ancestry originating ultimately in the Middle East, where agriculture was invented. The Bronze Age genomes are different again with about a third of their ancestry coming from ancient sources in the Pontic Steppe. "There was a great wave of genome change that swept into Europe from above the Black Sea into Bronze Age Europe and we now know it washed all the way to the shores of its most westerly island," said Professor of Population Genetics in Trinity College Dublin, Dan Bradley, who led the study, "and this degree of genetic change invites the possibility of other associated changes, perhaps even the introduction of language ancestral to western Celtic tongues." Whereas the early farmer had black hair, brown eyes and more resembled southern Europeans, the genetic variants circulating in the three Bronze Age men from Rathlin Island had the most common Irish Y chromosome type, blue eye alleles and the most important variant for the genetic disease, hemochromatosis. The latter C282Y mutation is so frequent in people of Irish descent that it is sometimes referred to as a Celtic disease. This discovery therefore marks the first identification of an important disease variant in prehistory. "Genetic affinity is strongest between the Bronze Age genomes and modern Irish, Scottish and Welsh, suggesting establishment of central attributes of the insular Celtic genome some 4,000 years ago," added PhD Researcher in Genetics at Trinity, Lara Cassidy.

Of the 654 religious congregations to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection between 2006 and 2013, 60% had black pastors or predominantly black membership

Meanwhile, black churches make up only 21% of U.S. congregations, according to a 2012 analysis.

Gays in Africa: Residents in the Senegalese town of Kaolack say that police have arrested 11 people accused of homosexual acts

Boukhari Ndiaye said that the arrested were among 20 people attending a celebration of a gay marriage at a school in the town about 125 miles southeast of the capital, Dakar, on Christmas Day 2015. He said that the 11 remain at the police station. Homosexual acts are criminalized in at least 34 African countries, including Senegal, where they are punishable by up to five years prison and fines of up to $2,500. A well-known Senegalese journalist was sentenced in July 2015 to six months in prison for acts of homosexuality. Seven men were also arrested and imprisoned.

Life under Muslim rule: Islamic State has sanctioned the harvesting of human organs in a previously undisclosed ruling by the group's Islamic scholars, raising concerns that the violent extremist group may be trafficking in body parts

The ruling, contained in a January 31, 2015 document, says that taking organs from a living captive to save a Muslim's life, even if it is fatal for the captive, is permissible. "The apostate's life and organs don't have to be respected and may be taken with impunity," says the document, which is in the form of a fatwa, or religious ruling, from the Islamic State's Research and Fatwa Committee. "Organs that end the captive's life if removed: The removal of that type is also not prohibited," Fatwa Number 68 says. Previously, Iraq has accused Islamic State of harvesting human organs and trafficking them for profit. The document does not define "apostate," though the Islamic State has killed or imprisoned non-Muslims, such as Christians. The fatwa sanctioning organ harvesting justifies the practice in part by drawing an analogy to cannibalism in extreme circumstances, a practice earlier Islamic scholars had allowed. "A group of Islamic scholars have permitted, if necessary, one to kill the apostate in order to eat his flesh, which is part of benefiting from his body," it says.

Israeli television aired video showing Jews at a wedding celebrating the murder of a Palestinian family — including an 18-month-old baby — in a West Bank terrorist firebombing

The video features friends of the suspected assailants in the July 2015 attack on a home in the Palestinian village of Duma. Three members of the Dawabshe family — Ali, 18 months, and his parents, Saad and Riham — were killed. Ahmed Dawabshe, now 5, the only surviving member of the immediate family, is still undergoing treatment in an Israeli hospital. In the video, party-goers stab a photo of the Dawabshe family and wave knives, rifles, pistols and Molotov cocktails. The crowd chants the words to a song that includes a verse from Judges 16:28, in which Samson says, “Let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” However, the crowd substitutes “Palestinians” for Philistines.

Brunei has banned public celebrations of Christmas, warning that putting up festive decorations or singing carols could threaten the country's Muslim faith

The Islamic country on the island of Borneo allows non-Muslims to celebrate Christmas, but only within their communities, and they must first alert the authorities. At least 65% of the 420,000-strong population of the oil-rich state are Muslims. The Ministry of Religious Affairs said in a statement: "These enforcement measures are ... intended to control the act of celebrating Christmas excessively and openly, which could damage the aqidah (beliefs) of the Muslim community." In a warning to Muslims recently, a group of Imams warned that any celebration "not in any way related to Islam” could lead to "‘tasyabbuh’ (imitation) and unknowingly damage the ‘aqidah’ (faith) of Muslims". Brunei is run as an absolutist Muslim monarchy by the Sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah, 67. In 2014, the sultan caused controversy by introducing Sharia criminal law, which allows for punishments including stoning, whipping and amputation.

What exactly does Hillary Clinton mean when she says that when she becomes president she intends to take relations with Israel "to the next level"?

Aren't the Zionists screwing us already?

Genes which make people intelligent have been discovered and scientists believe that they could be manipulated to boost brain power

Researchers have believed for some time that intellect is inherited with studies suggesting that up to 75% of IQ is genetic, and the rest down to environmental factors such as schooling and friendship groups. But until now, nobody has been able to pin-point exactly which genes are responsible for better memory, attention, processing speed or reasoning skills. Now Imperial College London has found that two networks of genes determine whether people are intelligent or not-so-bright. They liken the gene network to a football team. When all the players are in the right positions, the brain appears to function optimally, leading to clarity of thought and what we think of as quickness or cleverness. However when the genes are mutated or in the wrong order, it can lead to dullness of thinking, or even serious cognitive impairments. Scientists believe that there must be a master switch regulating the networks and if they could find it, they could switch on intelligence for everyone. “We know that genetics plays a major role in intelligence but until now haven’t known which genes are relevant,” said Dr Michael Johnson, lead author of the study from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College. “This research highlights some of genes involved in human intelligence, and how they interact with each other. What’s exciting about this is that the genes we have found are likely to share a common regulation, which means that potentially we can manipulate a whole set of genes whose activity is linked to human intelligence. Our research suggests that it might be possible to work with these genes to modify intelligence, but that is only a theoretical possibility at the moment – we have just taken a first step along that road.” In the study, the team of researchers looked at samples of human brain from patients who had undergone neurosurgery for epilepsy. They analysed thousands of genes expressed in the human brain, and then combined the results with genetic information from healthy people who had undergone IQ tests and from people with neurological disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability. They conducted various computational analyses and comparisons in order to identify the gene networks influencing healthy human cognitive abilities. Remarkably, they found that some of the same genes that influence human intelligence in healthy people were also the same genes that cause impaired cognitive ability and epilepsy when mutated, networks which they called M1 and M3. Dr Johnson added: “Traits such intelligence are governed by large groups of genes working together – like a football team made up of players in different positions. We used computer analysis to identify the genes in the human brain that work together to influence our cognitive ability to make new memories or sensible decisions when faced with lots of complex information. We found that some of these genes overlap with those that cause severe childhood onset epilepsy or intellectual disability. This study shows how we can use large genomic datasets to uncover new pathways for human brain function in both health and disease. Eventually, we hope that this sort of analysis will provide new insights into better treatments for neurodevelopmental diseases such as epilepsy, and ameliorate or treat the cognitive impairments associated with these devastating diseases.” Earlier in 2015 a team at King’s College London discovered that up to 65% of the difference in pupil’s GCSE grades was down to genetics, after analyzing genetic data from 12,500 twins. They found that all exam results were highly heritable, demonstrating that genes explain a larger proportion of the differences between children, between 54% and 65%. Previously it was thought that intelligence was determined by the formation of the cerebral cortex, the outermost layer of the human brain, also known as grey matter. Grey matter plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought and language. In contrast shared environmental factors such as home and school environment contributed between 14% and 21%. The rest was made up by individual external influences such as diseases or friends. Report author Professor Robert Plomin believes that children should be genetically screened at the age of four so that an individualised curriculum could be tailored to their needs. “Understanding the specific genetic and environmental factors influencing individual differences in educational achievement - and the complex interplay between them - could help educationalists develop effective personalised learning programmes, to help every child reach their potential by the end of compulsory education,” he said.

A Hispanic faces murder charges in the death of his infant son

Jose Feliciano, 51, told police that the 2-month-old was crying, so he smothered the baby, then choked him. "The guy is a piece of garbage," the superintendent at the Bronx apartment where the murder took place said. The super says that he would ask about the newborn and Feliciano would complain that the boy "is always crying" and that he couldn't get any sleep. Feliciano and the boy's mother traveled more than 50 miles upstate and left the boy's fully clothed body in the woods. Surveillance video from the apartment shows Feliciano putting a duffel bag in his car. Details of the murder came to light after the 31-year-old mother was admitted to a Manhattan hospital after trying to overdose on pills. She told a hospital employee about the death of her son. During an interview with police, the mother told them that the boy's body was upstate. Police recovered the body. Police say that the mother walked into the room after Feliciano had choked the boy, and Feliciano threatened to kill her if she went to authorities. Feliciano was charged in two unrelated assaults when he was arrested and has been charged with assault, rape, prostitution, and drug offenses in the past. "He was nothing but a troublemaker," the building superintendent said.

Using information on 18,000 children gathered over "an extended period of time," researchers from the London School of Economics say that kids born to first-time moms in their 30s have better cognitive scores and "behavioral outcomes" than first-born children with mothers aged 23 to 29

"First-time mothers in their 30s are, for example, likely to be more educated, have higher incomes, are more likely to be in stable relationships, have healthier lifestyles, seek prenatal care earlier and have planned their pregnancies," lead author Alice Goisis said.

Miss Puerto Rico Destiny Velez has been suspended after criticizing Muslims on Twitter

Miss Puerto Rico Destiny Velez has been suspended indefinitely from Miss America competition after she fired off a series of tweets about Islamic terrorism in response to the "We Are All Muslim" protests led by director Michael Moore. The 20-year-old Velez directed her angry tweets at the film director — who created a buzz recently when he held up a sign reading "We Are All Muslim" outside of Trump Tower and shared an open letter online claiming that, unlike Trump, "we are not a country of angry white guys." In her tweets, Velez pointed out that Muslims were engaged in terrorism in the United States as well as in other countries.

Pakistani immigrant crime: A depraved predator has been convicted of raping a woman with Down Syndrome after he lured her back to his house when she became separated from her mother

The Central Criminal Court in Ireland heard how Faisal Ellahi (34) approached 16 other women in the area around the same time as the rape and how he also tried to force his way into a female neighbor's home. Ellahi, originally from Haripur, Pakistan, admitted in court that he propositioned women as he walked the streets near his Dublin home, asking them for "consensual fun". Sickeningly he admitted "sexual contact" with his victim, but claimed that he didn't know she had a mental disability. He claimed that she had enjoyed the abuse. The trial heard that the victim told a specialist interviewer that Ellahi locked the door behind them and that she was afraid he was going to stab or kill her. "I wanted to go home, but he wouldn't let me," she said. "At one point she panicked and started banging on the door screaming 'Help, mum, help'." Ellahi claimed that he had never heard of Down syndrome until his arrest, that in his native country of Pakistan people with mental impairments are kept at home or in hospitals. He was found guilty by a jury of sexual assault of the woman, who has a mental age as low as seven. After the verdict came in, a visibly moved Mr Justice Tony Hunt said that the case was one of the most difficult he had ever dealt with. He told the jurors that their verdict was "absolutely correct" and that Ellahi's claim that the woman consented to the acts or was capable of consenting to them was "absolutely ludicrous." "He attempted to deceive you, as he did others, and fool you, but you didn't fall for it," he told jurors. Gardai - the Irish police - are investigating whether Ellahi has committed other sex crimes between the time he arrived in Ireland in 2005 and when he was first locked up after being charged with rape. It has also emerged that gardai who were attempting to probe Ellahi's background in Pakistan did not receive any information from authorities there on any potential criminal activity in his home country. Ellahi had pleaded not guilty to rape, sexual assault and having sex with a mentally impaired person at his Dublin home on June 12, 2013. The jury was not required to deliberate on the third count if it convicted of rape. The victim's family wept and hugged as the guilty verdict came in. Referring to the victim and her family, the judge said that the case was an example of how "very bad things can happen to very good people". Mr Justice Hunt heard the victim's family want the matter dealt with as soon as possible. He set a sentence date for January 18, 2016, and said that he hopes the authorities will deport Ellahi after his sentence is complete.

Company selling "fake hymens" to Muslim women in Germany - which burst with fake blood to trick husbands into thinking they are virgins - sees sales surge as migrant influx spikes

Apparently the company delivers the product all over the world but almost all of the customers were women with a Muslim background, with business booming particularly from Muslim women living in Europe. The product is literally a lifesaver for many Muslim women. Recently a couple from Pakistan living in the German city of Darmstadt received life prison sentences for killing their 19-year-old daughter when they learned that she had been having sex with a boyfriend they did not approve of.

Europe has a Muslim rape crisis but doesn't want to admit it

A lot of rapes in Europe are committed by Muslim men and various European governments are trying to deal with the problem without acknowledging the fact that a lot of rapes in Europe are committed by Muslim men.

A former Jewish day school teacher, administrator and private tutor in Toronto has been charged with possessing child pornography

Stephen Joseph Schacter, 55, was seen viewing child porn on a public computer at a social services center and was arrested. According to police, Schacter worked as an elementary teacher for the Eitz Chaim group of Orthodox day schools in Toronto from 1986 to 2004, an office administrator at Toronto’s United Synagogue Day School from 2005 to 2009 and a private tutor from 2008 to 2011. United Synagogue, now called Robbins Hebrew Academy, is affiliated with the Conservative movement. Police said that they are concerned Schacter had inappropriate contact with students at those institutions. He has been charged with one count of possession of child pornography.

Jewish crime in Britain: Greville Janner, a prominent campaigner for Holocaust victims who was later accused of child sex abuse, has died aged 87

Janner, a former member of parliament for the Labour Party for almost 30 years and ex-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, was best-known for his calls for reparations for families of thousands of Jews who fled Nazi persecution in World War Two. “The passing of Greville Janner marks the end of an era for the Jewish community,” Mick Davis, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, said. Janner had long faced accusations of child sex crimes and was the subject of three investigations between 1991 and 2007. He denied the allegations, but Britain’s Director of Public Prosecutions said in April 2015 that both prosecutors and police had made mistakes in not acting against him sooner. Recently, a London High Court judge ruled that Janner, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, was too ill to stand trial over 22 charges of indecent assault and other sex crimes, concluding months of legal argument over the peer’s mental health. However, a “trial of the facts” had been due to take place in his absence in April 2016, when a jury could decide whether Janner did in fact commit the abuse, but with no finding of guilt or conviction over the allegations by former residents of children’s homes in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. “The alleged victims of Janner are devastated that having waited so long for justice, it’s likely to be denied to them at the final hurdle,” Liz Dux, the lawyer for some of his accusers wrote.

Only 34% of Americans said that race relations in the country are fairly good or very good, the lowest since October 1995, shortly after the O.J. Simpson trial concluded in an acquittal for the former football star

Just 33% of whites and 38% of Hispanics view race relations as very or fairly good, with only 26% of African Americans saying the same.

From 1990 to 2014, the percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds who had attained a bachelor’s or higher degree increased from 26% to 41% for whites, but only went from 13% to 22% for blacks, according to the National Center for Education Statistics

In 2011, the median white household had $111,146 in wealth holdings, compared to just $7,113 for the median Black household.

For the 12th year in a row, Norway has earned the number one spot on the United Nations' 2015 Human Development Index (HDI), released as part of its annual Human Development Report

The HDI measures countries in three basic areas - life expectancy, education and income/standard of living. Norway earned high marks in all areas to get an overall score of 0.944. Its life expectancy at birth is 81.6 years, while its gross national income (GNI) per capita is $64,992. Rounding out the top five are: Australia (0.935), Switzerland (0.930), Denmark (0.923) and the Netherlands (0.922). The HDI covers 188 countries and territories. The bottom five countries are Niger (0.348), Central African Republic (0.350), Eritrea (0.391), Chad (0.392) and Burundi (0.400). The top 20 are: Norway, Australia, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, United States, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Liechtenstein, Sweden, United Kingdom, Iceland, South Korea, Israel, Luxembourg and Japan. As you may have guessed, white countries are generally better than non-white ones.

By the end of this century, Africa will be home to 39% of the world’s population, almost as much as Asia, and four times the share of North America and Europe put together

At present only one of the world’s ten most populous countries is in Africa: Nigeria. In 2100, the UN believes that five will be: Nigeria, Congo, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Niger.

The WHO performed a meta-analysis of 15 different countries and found that men who dress as women are 49 times more likely to contact the HIV virus than the general population

Men who dress as women and also prostitute themselves are nine times more likely to contract HIV than those who do not prostitute themselves. Such devastating news is never included in the transgender narrative that is sweeping American culture, including the school system. Dr. Paul McHugh, former chief psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University and the man who shut down Johns Hopkins’ renowned sex change unit, cites a study performed by the National Institute of Health that found the suicide rate among men who live as women, even in trans-friendly Sweden, is significantly higher than the general population.

Why gays should not be allowed to become priests: A Catholic priest is accused of stealing over $1 million in donations for years of dirty sex with a muscled homosexual S&M master

Rev. Peter Miqueli, 53, who is currently a pastor at St. Frances de Chantal in Throggs Neck is accused of taking from the donation plate at leading churches on Roosevelt Island and in The Bronx where he led the congregations. A lawsuit filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court by furious parishioners claims that Miqueli would spend $1,000 at a time for bondage sessions with a homosexual sex master named Keith Crist.

The son of a Pakistani diplomat has been charged with raping a 13-year-old Bronx girl and sexually abusing another teen

Mehmood Rahimoon, 20, who is nicknamed Rey and lives in Scarsdale, met the teens in October 2015 on Whisper, an app where users can post messages anonymously. For the next three weeks, they got in touch using Whisper and other apps, then met in person. The pair got physical with each other but did not have sex until a third meeting on December 1, in a room at the River Road Motor Inn on Webster Avenue in Woodlawn. Rahimoon forced the friend, also 13, to touch his private parts. The suspect’s father, Muhammad Rahimoon, is listed on his Facebook page as a community/welfare counselor for the Pakistani government. The younger Rahimoon, who does not have diplomatic immunity, made a full confession. He has been charged with raping a minor, sex abuse, sexual misconduct, and endangering the welfare of a child.

Walmart, America's favorite big-box retailer, may be responsible for the loss of hundreds of thousands of US jobs since 2001

According to a new study from the Economic Policy Institute, Walmart's importing of cheap Chinese goods resulted in the elimination of 400,000 American jobs between 2001 and 2013 by increasing the US' trade deficit with China. It's an estimate that the EPI calls "conservative." About three-quarters of those lost jobs were likely manufacturing jobs. "These job losses are particularly destructive because jobs in the manufacturing sector pay higher wages and provide better benefits than most other industries, especially for workers with less than a college education," the study states. The EPI estimates that Walmart is responsible for more than 15% of the trade deficit growth from 2001 to 2013, costing 3.2 million US jobs. In 2013, Walmart announced that it would increase its use of American-made goods by $50 billion over the next decade. But the EPI counters that Walmart's importing of Chinese goods has cost 100 US jobs for every one American job it creates with that program.

Blacks and Hispanics may be more optimistic than whites about their financial future, but their financial present is typically much bleaker

A CNN/Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 55% of blacks and 52% of Hispanics said that it was easier for them to achieve the American Dream than their parents. That's compared to only 35% of whites. Blacks and Hispanics still typically earn far less than whites, in part because whites dominate higher-paying fields, such as technology and finance. The income gap has held fairly steady for the past 40 years. When it comes to wealth, the difference is staggering. Whites have roughly 10 times the wealth of blacks and Hispanics. Over the past 25 years, the wealth gap between blacks and whites has nearly tripled, according to research by Brandeis University. Just under 11% of white children were in poverty in 2013, but 38% of black children and 30% of Hispanic children are poor.

Police have named the black gunman in the 2014 murder of a New York rabbi in Miami who was killed during a robbery

Rabbi Joseph Raksin was fatally shot on August 9th, 2014, as he walked to a temple in Miami, where he had been visiting family. The black killer, 15-year-old DeAndre Charles, has been charged with first degree murder and attempted robbery with a firearm.

A black man broke into a family's home, wandered up the stairs and stabbed a sleeping 6-year-old boy to death

The Woodford County Coroner has identified the victim as Logan Tipton, a kindergartner at Simmons Elementary. The black killer has been identified as Ronald Exantus, 32, of Indianapolis. Exantus is charged with murder and burglary. He appeared appeared before a Woodford County judge for an arraignment. A Woodford County prosecutor said that Exantus, who was escorted into the courtroom by nine deputies and officers, will likely face other charges, including assault, because he attacked two other kids in the home. The attack was eventually broken up by their father.

Since 9/11, the rate of immigration into the U.S.A. from Muslim countries has increased to 100,000 a year, from half that figure before 9/11, according to Pew Research

Why do the people who run this country insist on rewarding Muslim terrorists with more immigrants from which to recruit?

Obama, Muslims and the Democrats war on free speech

Attorney General Loretta Lynch has threatened that her office would take a more aggressive approach to those engaging in anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Any sensible person viewing today’s identity-based, tribe-like political activism (think recent incidents at the University of Missouri and Yale among countless others) would conclude that these antics are stupid, foolish, counter-productive, and otherwise ill-conceived or, as the Marxists would say, infantile leftist

Robert Weissberg looks at the stupidity of political activist groups such as Black Lives Matter.

Clock kid Ahmed Mohamed wants $15 million in damages

Hopefully the good people of Irving, Texas will tell the Muslim shakedown artist to go to hell.

College students say that remembering 9/11 is offensive to Muslims

It is really amazing how supposedly intelligent people can get stuck on stupid when it comes to dealing with Islamic terrorism. I wonder if any of these students would argue that it is offensive to Germans to remember the Holocaust or that it is offensive to southern whites to remember slavery? Probably not.

Race and sleep differences

Why do African Americans spend less time sleeping at night?

An Indian father-of-two bled to death after cutting out his own tongue as a sacrifice to a Hindu goddess

Deepak Kol, 28, collapsed minutes after using a knife to chop off the vital organ during the holy festival of Navratri. But instead of taking him to the hospital, Deepak's desperate family and festival worshippers tried to resurrect him by singing hymns and praying. "We kept praying until 4am in the morning, hoping that Devi [Hindu goddess] would instill life in my son's body," his father Sukhdeo, a farmer, said. "When that did not happen, I knew that the Goddess has given Deepak a place in her lotus feet." Deepak, from Kharhata village, northern India, had been fasting for days before he removed his tongue in tribute to Durga, the goddess of good triumphing over evil.

A dinnertime squabble between two Hispanic roommates over the last piece of chicken ended in a fatal stabbing and arrest on murder charges

Reinaldo Cardoso Rivera, 38, has been arrested for killing 34-year-old Darwin Gonzalez over food. Rivera, Gonzalez and three other men, all believed to be of Cuban descent, were preparing dinner and drinking in an apartment when the victim grabbed the last piece of fried chicken and ate it. Rivera became angry with his roommate for hogging the drumstick and the two got into a heated argument. The verbal spat eventually spilled into the parking lot outside the building where Gonzalez and Rivera came to blows. At some point, Rivera pulled a kitchen knife on his roommate and stabbed him. The suspect, who was also hurt in the brawl, initially fled the scene, but he later returned to the apartment and admitted to police officers, who by that point had responded to the residence, that he stabbed Gonzalez.

Happy Halloween!

Britain: Only 3.2% of Jews are unemployed - compared to an average unemployment rate of 11.6% for religious minorities

While all religious groups in Britain experienced a decline in pay between 2008 from 2013, Jews remained the best paid with an average of £16.20 per hour - 51.5% more than the national average.

Why do Jews fear Donald Trump?

Could it be that Trump is a threat to Jewish plans for destroying white America?

In the Detroit public school district, 96% of eighth graders are not proficient in mathematics and 93% are not proficient in reading

That is according to the results of the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress tests published by the Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics. This is despite the fact that in the 2011-2012 school year—the latest for which the Department of Education has reported the financial data — the Detroit public schools had “total expenditures” of $18,361 per student and “current expenditures” of $13,330 per student. According to data published by the Detroit Public Schools, the school district’s operating expenses in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2014 amounted to approximately $14,743 per student.

A 2011 study of California and New York arrest data led by Pennsylvania State University criminologist Darrell Steffensmeier found that blacks commit homicide at 11 times the rate of whites and robbery at 12 times the rate of whites

In New York City, blacks commit over 75% of all shootings, according to the victims of and witnesses to those shootings, though they are only 23% of the city’s population. They commit 70% of all robberies. Whites, by contrast, commit under 2% of all shootings and 4% of all robberies, though they are 34% of the city’s population. In the 75 largest county jurisdictions in 2009, blacks were 62% of robbery defendants, 61% of weapons offenders, 57% of murder defendants, and 50% of forgery cases, even though nationwide, blacks are 12% of the population. They dominated the drug-trafficking cases more than possession cases. Blacks made up 53% of all state trafficking defendants in 2009, whites made up 22%, and Hispanics 23%, whereas in possession prosecutions, blacks were 39% of defendants, whites 34%, and Hispanics 26%.

A report by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that New York City had the most segregated schools in the country

Even New York liberals don't want to send their children to schools with blacks and Hispanics.

Just 10% of Washington DC students who took a new standardized Geometry test and 25% of students who took a new high school English test met proficiency standards designed to reflect whether they are on track to enter college or begin careers after graduation

Results also show a stark achievement gap, with 52% of white students scoring proficient or better on the Geometry test, compared to 8% of Hispanic students and 4% of black students. Eighty-two percent of white students met the college-ready target in English, compared to 25% of Hispanic students and 20% of black students.

Baltimore, with roughly 623,000 people, has had 270 homicides in 2015, almost as many as in New York, with 281 in a city of about 8.4 million

Nearly 100 people have been murdered in Baltimore in the last three months alone. According to the U.S. Census, 63.3% of Baltimore's population in 2013 was black and 31.6% white.

Britain: Muslim men in some communities are having up to 20 children each because of polygamy and the rise of religiously sanctioned gender discrimination under Sharia Law

Baroness Cox, a cross-bench peer, highlighted a series of shocking examples of the impact of Sharia law on Muslim women in Britain as she called for them to be given greater protection under equality legislation. She disclosed one case in which a 63-year-old man tried to divorce his 23-year-old wife and arrange her marriage to a Pakistani man who needed a visa. He asked a gynecologist to "repair the hymen" of his wife so she could remarry, and stood to make £10,000 "for effecting the arrangement". "Such shocking cases surely cannot be allowed to continue," she said. "The rights of Muslim women and the rule of law in our land must be upheld." In other examples, Baroness Cox revealed that Muslim men divorce their wives by simply saying or writing "I divorce you" three times. She added: "My Muslim friends tell me that in some communities with high polygamy and divorce rates, men may have up to 20 children each. Clearly, youngsters growing up in dysfunctional families may be vulnerable to extremism and demography may affect democracy." She put forward proposals to close a loophole in the Equality Act which she said enables Sharia courts to practice sexual discrimination. Baroness Deech, another cross-bench peer, supported the bill and said: "We must not tolerate the sweeping of violence against women or children under the carpet by any religion in the name of faith." Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of MigrationWatch, said that Britain was entirely different to Muslim countries, adding: "Those who come must accept that." The independent crossbench peer said: "We must be prepared to insist that there can be only one law. We must get away from what I call the Rotherham complex where the authorities were so afraid of offending a minority community that they turned a blind eye to the appalling abuse of young mainly British girls."

A disturbing video has emerged that appears to show four women being tortured by a gang of men after being accused of witchcraft

The footage was reportedly taken in a village in Papua New Guinea, a country where violence and murders linked to sorcery are rife. In the video, the women have been stripped naked, tied up, burned and beaten. It also shows them being threatened with machetes while being questioned by the men. The women were accused of sorcery after a young man fell ill in the village in Enga province in August 2015.

Genetic ancestry, as well as facial characteristics, may play an important part in who we select as mates, according to an analysis from UC San Francisco, Microsoft Research, Harvard, UC Berkeley and Tel Aviv University

Researchers used population genomics and quantitative social sciences to gauge the relatedness of parents in a study of asthma in Mexican and Puerto Rican children. They found that the parents tended to choose partners with a similar mix of ancestry to their own, a phenomenon known as assortative mating. In the case of Mexicans, that meant having a similar proportion of mostly European and Native American ancestry, with some genomic heritage from Africa. For Puerto Ricans, that meant having similar amounts of European and African ancestry, with some Native American. The average mix was similar enough to make the couples equivalent to between third and fourth cousins, a degree of closeness that may have implications for the perpetuation of some genetic diseases but also could have health benefits. A study done in Iceland, for example, found that the most fertile couples were about as closely related as fourth cousins.

Blacks are 23% of New York's population, but they commit 75% of all shootings, 70% of all robberies and 66% of all violent crime, according to the victims of, and witnesses to, those crimes

Whites are 33% of the city's population, but they commit less than 2% of all shootings, 4% of all robberies, and 5% of all violent crime.

Fully 51% of immigrant households receive some form of welfare, compared to 30% of US-born households

The percentage of immigrants using some form of welfare varies enormously according to the part of the world from which they come. Rates are highest for households from Central America and Mexico (73%), the Caribbean (51%), and Africa (48%). Those from East Asia (32%), Europe (26%), and South Asia (17%) have the lowest rates. A majority of US-born black and Hispanic households are on some form of means-tested welfare, compared to just 23% of US-born white households. A striking 82% of black households with children receive welfare – double the white rate. Hispanic families are not far behind blacks. Among the US-born population, blacks receive cash handouts at more than three times the white rate; Hispanics at more than twice the white rate. Among all households, US-born blacks and Hispanics receive food handouts at three times the white rate; for Hispanic immigrants, the figure is four times the white rate. Among households with children, nearly all immigrant Hispanics – 86% – get food aid. US-born blacks and Hispanics aren’t far behind, with rates of 75% and 72%, respectively. US-born Hispanics and blacks, especially, are also heavy users of housing assistance. Among households with children, US-born Hispanics use these programs at nearly four times the white rate and blacks at seven times the white rate. There are 39.88 million households in the United States receiving some sort of means-tested welfare.

More than 50% of Catholic priests are gay

I guess this explains why so many priests like to rape young boys.

A rabbi has been sentenced to 22 years in prison after pleading guilty in Maryland to sexually abusing an underage girl, court documents showed

Rabbi Frederick Karp, 51, of Beachwood, Ohio, has been sentenced by a Baltimore County Circuit Court judge. His sentence includes five years of supervised probation after release. Karp pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a minor and a third-degree sex offense, court filings showed. He was arrested in New York in January 2015. Baltimore County prosecutor Lisa Dever said that the plea included charges from Cleveland based on events that occurred at Karp’s home. She said that the three victims lived in Baltimore County at the time of the events.

Researchers have found that immigrants are more likely to be delinquent on mortgages than natives, even after controlling for a rich set of household demographic and socioeconomic status and mortgage characteristics

The researchers found that immigrants were over three times as likely to be delinquent on their mortgages than were people who were born in the United States.

Nearly a quarter of all births in Guatemala are among teenage mothers - one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in Latin America

In Guatemala, most pregnancies among girls under 14 are the result of rape at the hands of fathers or other relatives, but often it is the girl who is forced to leave the family home, and few perpetrators are punished, said a leading rights campaigner. "In the majority of cases of sexual violence against girls, some as young as 10, most are committed by family members, mainly by the girl's father or stepfather," said Mirna Montenegro, the head of Guatemala's Sexual and Reproductive Health Observatory (OSAR). In 2012, nearly 90% of all pregnancies among Guatemalan girls under 14 involved relatives, including cousins and uncles, of which 30% were the result of rape by fathers, according to Guatemala's human rights ombudsman. Despite new laws passed in Guatemala to better protect against sexual violence, few who commit rape against girls are punished. "Getting justice for girls who report crimes of sexual violence is still a big challenge for us. Often it's the pregnant girl who is removed from her home and placed in a refuge and not the perpetrator of the crime," Montenegro said. According to a 2009 law, sex with a child under 14 is defined as rape, but of the 2,000 reported cases of under-14s getting pregnant in 2012, only eight resulted in convictions, Montenegro said. Guatemala's children's prosecutor, Harold Flores, said that the country's high teen pregnancy rate was a "scourge", and there were few convictions for rape carried out on girls under 14. "We want girls, who have been victims of sexual violence, to remain in their home or be under the care of a relative. In some cases in the past girls were placed in government care and the aggressor wasn't arrested," he said from Guatemala City. "It's deplorable that many of these cases are a result of sexual violence within the nuclear family: stepfathers, uncles, fathers, and grandfathers. We're reaching more and more girls as soon as we hear about a case and we have expanded our presence across Guatemala and rural areas," Flores said. High levels of sexual violence against women and girls stem from the low status of women, especially indigenous Mayan women, in Guatemala's patriarchal and macho society. "Machismo is about men believing a woman is their property and possession. We've heard fathers say 'She's my daughter and my property so I will do what I want with her," said Montenegro. She said that gender violence is also a legacy of Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war when rape was used as a weapon of war. In Guatemala, teenage pregnancy is most common among uneducated indigenous girls, especially in poor rural areas. Guatemala's high prevalence of child marriage, where girls can marry at 14 with their parent's consent, also fuels adolescent pregnancy, Montenegro said. Last year, 5,100 girls under 14 became pregnant in the Central American country, up from 4,354 in 2013, according to OSAR. One reason for the increase is because hospitals and health providers have to report pregnancies among girls under 14 under a law passed in 2012.

Jewish homophobes or Jewish racists or both?

Nearly two years ago a gay black fashion student was left blinded in one eye after he was brutally attacked as he walked home following a night of partying. Now three of the four Hasidic Jewish men accused of beating him went before a Brooklyn, New York judge. Taj Patterson claims that he was confronted by the ultra-Orthodox group, made up of at least 12 men, as he was headed to his Fort Greene home on December 1, 2013. He says that they assaulted him as they shouted homophobic insults. Officers from the NYPD's hate crime squad later arrested four men - 41-year-old Abraham Winkler, 23-year-old Mayer Herskovic, 21-year-old Pinchas Braver and 27-year-old Joseph Fried. They are all accused of gang assault, imprisonment and menace, but no hate crime charges have been filed, despite Patterson's claim that he was called a f****t. One attacker allegedly kicked him as he lay on the ground and shouted: "stay down, f****t, stay the f*** down" as others cheered. He said later: "I was alone. I was an easy target. I'm black. I'm gay, a whole slew of reasons." The now 24-year-old admitted, however, that he had been drinking heavily and police included the fact that he was "intoxicated" in their initial reports. Patterson suffered a broken left eye socket, a torn retina, blood clotting, and cuts and bruises to his knee and ankles. He is now also suing the four men - seeking unspecified damages for his injuries and accuses the volunteer safety patrol of negligence. Shomrim is a self-styled neighborhood protection outfit, set up in Haredi communities throughout the United States to help combat crime. Volunteers can make citizens' arrests only. Police, however, say that they have become involved in acts of vigilantism.

The racial achievement gap among New York City public-school students gets worse once they reach college, according to a new study

An analysis released by Families for Excellent Schools, a pro-charter group, says that only 12.7% of this year’s African-American high-school freshmen and only 12.1% of Hispanics will end up with four-year bachelor’s degrees. The organization, which said it based its conclusions on public data, put the comparable rate for whites at 37.5% and Asians at 40.4%. The sharp racial and ethnic gap was even more pronounced than in the city’s public schools. The Department of Education reported that 63.8% of blacks, 61.4% of Hispanics, 80.7% of whites and 82.6% of Asians graduated high schools in 2014. That put the achievement difference between whites and Hispanics, for instance, at 20 percentage points in high schools. In college it was 25 percentage points, according to the analysis.

What are the five worst countries to die in?

They are Iraq, Bangladesh, Philippines, Nigeria and Burma. Not exactly great places to live in either. The researchers looked at 80 countries and ranked them for "quality of death," looking at factors including the overall palliative care and healthcare environment, the availability and training of healthcare professionals, the affordability of care, and — most importantly — the quality of care. Britain is apparently the best place to die.

A caucus of the New York City Council’s 13 Jewish lawmakers is calling on the United States government to admit more Syrian refugees than currently allowed

“We believe that the United States has the opportunity and obligation to do much more to help relieve this crisis,” the caucus, chaired by Councilman Mark Levine, a Manhattan Democrat, said in a joint statement. “We therefore call on President Obama to accelerate the pace at which our nation is providing refuge to Syrian migrants, beyond the current modest target of only 10,000 over the next year.” They said that the migrant crisis has particularly poignancy for them. “Many of us grew up with or have family members who were forced to flee persecution. All of us are keenly aware of the countless times in history in which Jews have been refugees.” More than 4 million refugees have fled Syria following a brutal civil war there. Many observers say this migrant crisis is the worst since World War II, testing the foundations of the European Union. At least some right-leaning countries have shuttered their borders to refugees, while others like Germany have wrestled with massive influxes. The Obama administration announced recently that the United States will increase the number of worldwide refugees they accept each year to 100,000 by 2017, a boost from 70,000. The Jewish Caucus didn’t specify how much higher they would like to see the cap increased.

The genetic makeup of colon cancer tumors and survival rates for patients with the disease differ by race, according to a study from researchers at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center

“These findings put the issue of race more prominently on the radar of investigators that cancer biology may contribute to race-based disparities,” says the study’s co-lead author, Harry Yoon, M.D., an oncologist at Mayo Clinic. “While it is too early to change the way we treat these patients, our results indicate that future studies are needed to examine potential biological drivers of these differences more closely.” According to the American Cancer Society, colon cancer is the third most common cancer in both men and women with more than 93,000 cases estimated to be diagnosed in 2015. Researchers have long known that blacks develop colon cancer at an earlier age and blacks with colon cancer are at higher risk of dying than whites. However, it has been difficult to identify why the differences in survival exist. Researchers analyzed data from a large clinical trial of more than 3,000 patients with stage III colon cancer. The analysis revealed that tumors from whites, blacks, and Asians had different frequencies of mutations in two key cancer-related genes, BRAF and KRAS, which have been associated with worse outcomes. It also found that colon cancers were twice as likely to recur in black patients as in whites; however, the discrepancy was only evident in those under age 50. “The role of the biology of colon tumors according to race has not been examined as extensively,” says Dr. Yoon. “This biology can be reflected in the genetic makeup of tumors, as well as by whether and how quickly cancer returns after the patient has been treated.” Dr. Yoon and his colleagues focused their efforts on finding out if colon cancers are genetically different based on race, as well as if race-based differences exist in recurrence rates. To do this, they examined data from a large clinical trial – Alliance N0147 – which included patients with stage III colon cancer from many centers in North America who all underwent surgery to remove their cancer and chemotherapy after surgery. As part of the trial, the patients provided a self-description of their race as either white, Asian, or black or African-American. The researchers then evaluated the tumors from these participants to see if a mutation was present in the cancer-related genes BRAF and KRAS. They also noted if the cancer had returned after treatment. Analysis of the data showed that tumors from whites, blacks and Asians were different in terms of the frequency of mutations in the BRAF and KRAS genes. Tumors from whites were twice as likely to have BRAF mutations; whereas, tumors from blacks had the highest frequency of KRAS mutations. Tumors from Asians were the most likely to have normal copies of both genes. The analysis also indicated that the colon cancers among blacks had more than double the risk of cancer recurrence, compared to whites. However, this discrepancy was only visible among young patients – those under age 50. Almost half of younger black patients experienced colon cancer recurrence within five years, compared to only 22% to 35% of whites or Asian patients of any age. “In addition to published data indicating that a limited number of genes are preferentially mutated in colon cancers from black versus white patients, our study revealed differences in the mutation frequencies of BRAF and KRAS oncogenes that provide prognostic information in colon cancer patients,” says Frank Sinicrope, M.D., an oncologist at Mayo Clinic and co-lead author. “Our data provide further evidence that colon cancers from blacks are intrinsically different and are associated with more aggressive clinical behavior in young black patients.”

Is John Derbyshire the white Ta-Nehisi Coates?

Is it really racist to point out that any given black was almost fifteen times more likely to have killed a white in 2013 than any given white was to have killed a black?

Immigrant employment has risen 5.4 times faster than US-born American employment — 15% versus 2.8% — during the Obama years

Obama-era immigration may have pushed as many as 2.53 million US-born Americans onto the unemployment rolls.

When is a black man not a black man?

When he kills a bunch of white people.

Official statistics from the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) have once again confirmed that, despite decades of affirmative action and billions of dollars of set-asides, black students still underperform academically when compared to whites

The new NCES study, titled “School Composition and the Black–White Achievement Gap” made a point of studying the lack of black academic achievement in schools that were “predominantly black” and those in which blacks were a minority. The report calls this distinction the “Black student density” and used the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) grade 8 mathematics assessment data. Black students at the national level, on average, scored 30 points lower than their White peers in 2011. Among the results highlighted in the report, the study indicates that the achievement gap between black and white students remains whether schools fall in the highest density category (that its, schools that are composed of at least 60% black students) or the lowest density category (i.e., schools that are composed of less than or equal to 20% black students).

Seven out of every eight immigrants to the United States in 1960 were from Europe; by 2010, nine out of ten were coming from other parts of the world

The 1965 Immigration Act was largely responsible for that shift. No law passed in the 20th century altered the country’s demographic character quite so thoroughly.”

Jewish power: FBI destroys evidence linked to Medicare fraud among Orthodox Jewish community in New York

The FBI destroyed records indicating potential Medicaid fraud among haredi Orthodox Jews in upstate New York’s Orange County supposedly because they came from an "unauthorized" investigation. Justin Rodriguez, a spokesman for Orange County, said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had destroyed materials submitted by a county social services employee, Nicole Latreille. Latreille filed a lawsuit recently against the county saying that she was penalized for being a whistle-blower after reporting evidence of $40 million in fraud among residents of Kiryas Joel, a predominantly Hasidic Jewish village inside the town of Monroe. Rodriguez said that Latreille was suspended temporarily and given a lateral assignment for using county computers and restricted databases “not pursuant to her official duties, but as a private citizen.” Latreille’s allegations, Rodriguez said, “while populist, are not legally tenable and in fact may have compromised ongoing investigations.” According to Rodriguez, the FBI informed the county that it had destroyed the materials sent by Latreille earlier in 2015 “due to the improprieties associated with the manner in which the information was obtained.” The bureau said that the information was not used in any criminal investigation or prosecution. Latreille’s complaint suggests that she was punished because her investigation “revealed corruption by persons associated with political allies” of County Executive Steve Neuhaus in Kiryas Joel.

India: A man accused of beheading a five-year-old boy as part of a witchcraft ritual has been thrashed and set on fire by enraged locals

Tirumala Rao, 35, seized the child from a nursery inside a health center and carried him to his house. He then performed a prayer ritual before cutting off the helpless boy's head, collecting his blood in a vessel and sprinkling it all over his house. The incident was discovered when the victim's mother, named L Adilakshmi, went to collect her son from the nursery in Pokuru in Andhra Pradesh in south east India and found that he had disappeared. A family friend told her that she had seen Rao take the child and the distraught woman was then said to have gone to Rao’s house with a group of villagers. She found the beheaded body of her son in the corner of one room and his head in the other corner, next to the vessel of his blood. They then tracked down the accused, who had fled, tied him to a pole, doused him in kerosene and set him alight. As they lynched him the suspect was heard to have said that he could bring the boy back to life. He was found by police and taken to hospital for treatment, where he is in a critical condition.

Japan's prime minister has said that his nation needs to attend to its own demographic challenges posed by falling birth rates and an aging population before opening its doors to refugees

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced at the U.N. General Assembly that Japan is ramping up assistance in response to the exodus of refugees to Europe from the Middle East and Africa. He said that Japan will provide $1.5 billion in emergency aid for refugees and for stabilization of communities facing upheaval. But speaking to reporters later he poured cold water on the idea of Japan opening its doors to those fleeing. He said that Japan first needed to attend to domestic challenges which he proposes to tackle under a revamped economic policy that aims to boost GDP to a post-war record level, while bolstering the social security system to support families. "As an issue of demography, I would say that before accepting immigrants or refugees we need to have more activities by women, by elderly people and we must raise (the) birth rate. There are many things that we should do before accepting immigrants," Abe told a news conference, according to the official translation of his comments. He added that Japan would "discharge our own responsibility" in addressing the refugee crisis, which he described as helping to improve conditions that cause the exodus. Abe earlier told the world body that Japan would provide $810 million this year for emergency assistance of refugees and internally displaced persons from Syria and Iraq, triple what it gave last year. Abe said that Japan is also preparing about $750 million for stabilization efforts in the Middle East and Africa. Japan prides itself on being a good global citizen. It is one of the largest aid donors in the world. Last year Japan gave $181.6 million to the UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency, making it second only to the United States in generosity. But it has offered very few if any resettlement places for refugees from the civil war in Syria. According to Ministry of Justice data, it accepted just 11 asylum seekers out of a record 5,000 applications last year, although Japanese officials say that most of the asylum applicants were from other Asian countries and were already living in Japan.

An Indian Hindu mob came in the night while Mohammad Akhlaq slept, smashing in his door and dragging him from bed, then beating him to death with bricks until the blocks crumbled in their hands

Why? "They accused us of keeping cow meat," Akhlaq's daughter, Sajida, said. About 80% of Indians are Hindu and refuse to eat beef for religious reasons, but many of the country's 140 million Muslims do eat beef — or at least they did until laws passed or tightened under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, banned the practice. The state of Uttar Pradesh — home to Akhlaq, a Muslim in his 50s — prohibits the slaughter of cows and those who break the law face arrest. Yet when a rumor spread that Akhlaq killed a calf, 100 men in Bisara village reportedly took matters into their own hands. They "broke down our doors and started beating my father and brother," Sajida says. "My father was taken outside the house and beaten to death. My brother was dragged to the courtyard downstairs and they used bricks to hit him on the head and chest." The 22-year-old is now in critical condition. "They also tried to molest me and hit my grandmother," Sajida continues. "They threatened to kill me if I said a word to the police." Sajida adds that there was only mutton in the fridge. "The police have taken it for examination. If the results prove that it was not beef, will they bring back my dead father?" Eight people are charged with murder and rioting. Protesters set fire to two police cars and one person was shot by police after officers detained the priest of a temple from which the mob reportedly set out. The priest was later released.

South Africa’s murder rate has jumped 4.6% in the past year, with almost 49 people killed every day

A total of 17,805 murders were committed from April 2014 to March 2015, an increase of 782 deaths from the year before in a population of 54 million. The murder figures, which have risen each year from a low of 15,554 in 2011-12, reflect a reversal of what many had hoped was a long-term progress in reducing violent crime. “17,805 is a number I would expect from a country at war,” said Dianne Kohler Barnard, shadow police minister of the main opposition, Democratic Alliance. Armed robberies, carjackings and burglaries also increased, showing the country “lacks clear strategies to reverse this dangerous trend”, Gareth Newham, of the Institute for Security Studies think tank, said. “That robberies have increased raises questions about the extent to which police resources are being effectively used. With some of the best technology in the world, and more than 194,000 personnel, the South African police service should be better able to reduce crimes such as robbery.” The police minister said that South Africa needed to tackle the violence within their communities. “To think we can resolve the issue of murder on our own is effectively just hallucination in a sense, because it’s a social problem. It’s a problem that’s got to be tackled at the level of family units,” Nathi Nhleko said. Reported sexual offences, assaults and car thefts decreased. The fall in numbers of rape and other forms of sexual violence by 5.4% could mean that victims did not trust the police enough to report these crimes, Kohler Barnard said. More than 50,000 sexual offences were reported to South African police last year, but the number of sexual victims willing to report these crimes has dropped by 21% from 2011 to 2014, according to a national survey on victims of crime, carried out by Statistics South Africa, a government agency.

Researchers have found that there are distinct differences in how fingerprint ridges split between people of European and African ancestry

They analysed the prints of 61 African American women, 61 African American men, 61 European American women and 60 European American men. While they could not find any significant differences between men and women, they did find significant differences in the level two details of fingerprints between people of European and African descent. Level two details are specific variations such as bifurcations – where ridges split - ridge endings and other structures. The researchers found that black people tended to have around 5% more bifurcations than those who were white.

Almost half of Americans say that Asian immigrants have a positive effect on the country, while just 26% say the same of immigrants from Latin America

Before the Immigration and Nationality Act passed in 1965, white Americans made up 84% of the population, followed by African Americans at 11%, Hispanics at 4%, and Asians at less than 1%, per a Pew Research Center report. Today, with immigration policies no longer favoring Europeans, those figures are 62%, 12%, 18%, and 6%, respectively. How will they change in another 50 years? The US population will probably include 46% whites, 24% Hispanics, 14% Asians, and 13% African Americans, Pew reports. The biggest change comes with a new largest immigrant group: Hispanics now make up 47% of immigrants, but Pew expects that they'll total 31% by 2065, while Asians — including from China, Pakistan, and India — will total 38%.

Obama's America: Despite three years of supposed economic recovery, black children were as likely to be poor in 2013 as in 2010 — and more likely than at any time since the early 1990s

Almost four out of 10 black children are now growing up in poverty, as against one in nine white children. More than 25% of the black poor now live in areas of concentrated poverty, triple the rate for poor white people. Between 2007 and 2009, black homeowners were 70% more likely to suffer foreclosure than whites. Higher-earning black families were 80% more likely to lose their homes than their white counterparts. The evanescence of black home ownership explains why post-recession the wealth of the median black family tumbled to 1/13th the wealth of the median white family — a disparity wider than any at time in the past quarter century. The income of the median black household dropped 9.2% between 2007 and 2013 — as against 5.6% for the median white household.

A model was found hanged after fearing that she was about to be forced into an arranged marriage by her Muslim parents

Nadia Menaz, 24, was found dead at her home in Oldham, Greater Manchester in May 2015, five months after taking out a court order to stop her family from forcing her to marry. The mother-of-one had already married husband Umar Rasool in an Islamic ceremony, but her family did not approve of him and the union was not recognized under English law, Oldham Coroner's Court heard.

Researchers from the University of Liverpool have identified the genetic basis of how mice can recognise close relatives, even if they have never encountered them before

In the study, researchers demonstrated that a species-specific genetic marker called the major urinary protein (MUP), which is detected through the animal's scent, is used by female house mice to select closely related females as nest partners to help look after their offspring. The researchers also showed that another scent-based genetic marker, the vertebrate-wide major histocompatibility complex (MHC), is not involved in kin recognition, contrary to previous assumptions that this is how most animals recognize their relatives. It is well established that animals, including people, bias cooperation towards close relatives because it increases the odds of the genes that they share with relatives being passed to the next generation. Female house mice can breed cooperatively and usually select relatives as nest partners regardless of prior familiarity, but the genetic markers involved in this recognition have proven extremely difficult to identify. Previous work by the team provided the first hint that MUP but not MHC might provide a genetic kinship marker to avoid inbreeding with close kin, but could not prove the mechanisms involved. The next step for researchers is to investigate if other species have evolved similar genetic markers to recognize their relatives and, if so, whether these signals evolve only in species that cooperate with relatives to increase their breeding success.

In the latest setback over Bill Cosby's sex assault allegations, a pair of colleges have rescinded honorary degrees awarded to him years ago

Fordham University in New York and Marquette University in Wisconsin have announced that they had pulled the degrees given to the black comedian to honor him. In a statement, Fordham said that as a Jesuit university, it could "no longer stand behind the degree" it gave to Cosby in 2001. The school said that Cosby was unworthy of the honor not just because of the actions he admitted to in a deposition - that he obtained drugs to give to women he wanted to have sex with - but also because Fordham believed that he engaged in a "longtime strategy" of verbally attacking his female accusers. "That Mr. Cosby was willing to drug and rape women for his sexual gratification, and further damage those same women's reputations and careers to obscure his guilt, hurt not only his victims, but all women, and is beyond the pale," the statement read. Cosby's lawyer, John Schmitt, who went to Fordham's law school, wrote an angry letter to university president, Rev. Joseph McShane. Over the years, dozens of women have accused Cosby of sex assault, but he has never been charged. This is the first time that Fordham has rescinded an honorary degree. In an equally strong statement, the president and provost of Marquette announced that the school's board of trustees rescinded Cosby's degree, awarded in 2013, after conversations with campus leaders and faculty members. University President Michael R. Lovell and Provost Daniel Myers said that both groups gave overwhelming support to the board's action. Like Fordham, Marquette cited what Cosby has admitted to in a deposition as the basis for its action. "By his own admission, Mr. Cosby engaged in behaviors that go entirely against our university's mission and the guiding values we have worked so hard to instill on our campus," the statement read. The fallout from the controversy over the sex assault allegations has been swift. Reruns of "The Cosby Show," his landmark 1980s sitcom, have been pulled from the airwaves, and other projects and tour dates have been scrapped.

It is estimated that about 215 million Americans are "mainly white" (or 69%), while about 40 million identify as black or African-American, with up to 14 million identifying as Asian

The most common ancestry of Americans is English and German. The largest groupings of non-Hispanic whites first the English-Scottish-Irish at some 87 million, 28% of the population, followed by Germans (including Dutch, Austrian, Swiss) at about 50 million, and Scandinavians at 10 million. Others from Western Europe include 16 million from Italy and probably 12 million from France. Eastern Europe is the origin of about 16 million, including 9 million from Poland, 3.5 million from Russia, and 1.5 million from both Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and over 1 million from Greece. About 2 million are from the eastern Balkans and the Middle East. In all, four states - Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire and West Virginia - are the most strongly Western European (English, German, Italian, French). Six other states - Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania - have strong Eastern European ties. Some 215 million people are probably mainly white (69%), of which 192 million (61%) are self-identified non-Hispanic white. The difference of 23 million are people who identify as white and Hispanic. About 40 million identify as Black or African-American, although there is probably an admixture of 20% or more of “whiteness”. Up to 14 million identify as of Asian origin, but as many as 1 million may be white in genetics and appearance, e.g. people from Afghanistan, NW India or West Pakistan. Finally less than 1 million identify as Pacific Islanders. This leaves a large number of 34 million who identify as all or partly Native American, including about 5 million Alaskan or US Native American, about half of whom are clearly Native American, but about half of whom appear to be and are probably genetically mostly white. Then 29 million are “Mexican” or Caribbean, etc., not a race, but a perceived or actual combination of Spanish (some Portuguese) and Native Americans, from the US southwest, central America, the Caribbean, and South America. Even though these people legitimately identify as a mix of Native and Spanish, most are genetically “white”. Among whites, the two largest Y-chromosome haplogroups are R1b and I.

More black men are dropping out of high school and ending up jobless, in jail or dead at a young age, according to a new research paper

Meanwhile more black women are getting a better education and landing better jobs. This is a problem, the report's authors say, because people in the United States tend to marry others from the same racial background who have a similar level of education and income. Among black male high-school dropouts, 60% will be dead or incarcerated before the age of 35. Though interracial marriage is on the rise, white Americans still primarily marry white Americans, and black Americans still primarily marry black Americans.

Muslim stupidity: A stampede during one of the last rituals of the Hajj - the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca - has killed more than 700 people and injured nearly 900 others in Saudi Arabia

The stampede occurred during the ritual known as "stoning the devil" in a tent city in Mina, about two miles from the holy site in Mecca, Islam's holiest city. Footage showed a disturbing scene. Bodies piled upon bodies, a few moving, but most appearing lifeless. Workers in hard hats and reflective vests can be seen pulling dead bodies away to get to those who are still alive. Ethar El-Katatney, a pilgrim who was near the stampede site about five hours after the surge happened, said that she walked past ambulances carrying bodies of victims. She said that she saw numerous police officers and medical personnel in the area. "I saw the ambulances, I saw bodies. ... At least 20, 30 ambulances passed me by," she said. Hundreds have been killed in past years during the same ceremony, and it comes only 13 days after a crane collapse killed more than 100 people at another major Islamic holy site, the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The incident is the deadliest disaster at Mina since 1990, when 1,426 people died. Civil defense authorities said that the latest death toll is 717, with 863 people injured, but the numbers have been climbing steadily. Officials deployed 4,000 workers, along with 220 ambulances and other vehicles, to Mina in response to the disaster. In the ritual, crowds of pilgrims throw stones at three pillars in a re-enactment of when the Prophet Abraham stoned the devil and rejected his temptations, according to Muslim traditions. In the stampede, pilgrims were walking toward the largest of the pillars when there was a sudden surge in the crowd, causing a large number of people to fall. The ceremony was the scene of stampedes and hundreds of deaths in the 1980s and 1990s as pilgrims passed a crowded bottleneck area leading to the small pillars on the ground. In 2006, a stampede there killed at least 363 people. Losing one's life during the Hajj season is considered by many devout Muslims as an entry to heaven. It was also a tragic day for Muslims in Yemen, where at least 29 people attending Eid prayers died when a bomb went off inside a crowded mosque in Sanaa.

A new federal study shows that black and white students at schools with a high density of black students perform worse than those at schools with a lower density of black students

The report by the National Center for Education Statistics, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, sheds new light on the achievement gap between white and black students. The report found that, on average, white students attended schools that were 9% black while black students attended schools that were 48% black. Achievement was lower for both black and white students in schools where black students accounted for more than 40% of the student body, compared to schools where black students accounted for less than 20% of the student body. The study was conducted using data from the results of the 2011 eighth-grade math test given as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, an assessment that’s given to U.S. students in various subjects in grades four, eight and 12.

White men in America are far more depressed than black men, despite reporting less stress in their lives

The results come from a recent study which attempted to find how race and gender influences depression. The same study found that black women in the United States have the highest amount of stress but have the same susceptibility to depression as white women.

A study from investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center has, for the first time, identified genomic differences between the breast tumors of African American and white women, differences that could contribute to the recognized differences in recurrence rate and survival

In their paper, the researchers report that several genetic characteristics of more aggressive tumors were significantly more prevalent in African American patients and appeared to be associated with a greater risk of tumor recurrence. "In addition to having a higher prevalence of triple-negative breast cancers than Caucasian women - something that has been documented in previous studies - we found that African American women with breast cancer had a significantly higher prevalence of the TP53 driver mutation, basal tumor subtype and greater genomic diversity within tumors, all of which suggest more aggressive tumor biology," says Tanya Keenan, MD, of the MGH Cancer Center, lead author of the study. "The higher risk of tumor recurrence that we observed among African American women was reduced when controlling for those factors, suggesting that these genomic differences contribute, at least partly, to the known racial disparity in the survival of African American and Caucasian breast cancer patients." While improved diagnostic and treatment methods have reduced the overall death rate from breast cancer, the study authors note, that reduction has not been as pronounced among African American patients. Currently African American women with breast cancer in the United States are 40% more likely to die from their cancer than are white women. While socioeconomic factors such as income, health insurance and access to health services contribute to those disparities, they cannot explain the whole difference. It has been recognized that the more aggressive triple-negative breast cancer occurs more frequently in African American women, but no previous study has examined racial differences in tumor genotype and how they might contribute to the risk of cancer recurrence. The researchers analyzed whole-exome sequencing data from the tumors of African American and white women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1988 and 2013 - a group of 105 African American and 664 white patients - from the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Genome Atlas. Although the same five tumor-specific mutations were most prevalent among both groups, more African American patients' tumors were driven by the TP53 mutation, while the PIK3CA mutation was more common among the tumors of white patients. The number of mutations within each tumor and the prevalence of the basal-like and mesenchymal stem-like subtypes - all of which suggest more aggressive tumors - was also greater in the tumors of African American patients. Tumor recurrence was faster and more likely among African American patients, particularly for basal subtype tumors or those driven by the TP53 mutation. "Our study adds important pieces to the puzzle of why African American women with breast cancer are less likely to survive," says senior author Aditya Bardia, MBBS, MPH, attending physician at the MGH Cancer Center and assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "If our findings are confirmed by additional studies, they may open doors to the development of targeted therapies against the tumor subtypes more likely to affect African Americans and potentially help reduce racial disparities in breast cancer."

The traditional diet of Greenland natives - the Inuit (once known as Eskimos) - is held up as an example of how high levels of omega-3 fatty acids can counterbalance the bad health effects of a high-fat diet, but a new study hints that what's true for the Inuit may not be true for everyone else

The study shows that the Inuit and their Siberian ancestors have special mutations in genes involved in fat metabolism that help them partly counteract the effects of a diet high in marine mammal fat, mostly from seals and whales that eat fish with high levels of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Those genetic mutations, found in nearly 100% of the Inuit, are found in a mere 2% of Europeans and 15% of Han Chinese, which means that they would synthesize omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids differently from the Inuit. "The original focus on fish oil and omega-3s came from studies of Inuit: on their traditional diet, rich in fat from marine mammals, Inuit seemed quite healthy with a low incidence of cardiovascular disease, so fish oil must be protective," said project leader Rasmus Nielsen, a UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology. "We've now found that they have unique genetic adaptations to this diet, so you cannot extrapolate from them to other populations. It could be very good for the Inuit to eat all these omega-3 fatty acids, but not for the rest of us." These genetic mutations in the Inuit have more widespread effects. They lower "bad" LDL cholesterol and fasting insulin levels, presumably protecting against cardiovascular disease and diabetes. They also have a significant effect on height, because growth is in part regulated by a person's fatty acid profile. The researchers found that the mutations causing shorter height in the Inuit are also associated with shorter height in Europeans. "The mutations we found in the Inuit have profound physiological effects, changing the whole profile of fatty acids in the body, plus it reduces their height by 2 centimeters: nearly an inch," said Ida Moltke, a University of Copenhagen associate professor of bioinformatics who is joint first author on the study. "Height is controlled by many genes, but this mutation has one of the strongest effects on height ever found by geneticists." Nielsen noted that this is the first evidence that human populations are actually adapted to particular diets; that is, they differ in the way they physiologically respond to diets. Just as genome sequencing can lead to personalized medicine tailored to an individual's specific set of genes, so too may a person's genome dictate a personalized diet. "People ask themselves whether they should be on a stone-age diet, for example. The response may well depend on their genome," Nielsen said.

Muslim barbarians: Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was just 17 when he was arrested in 2012 and accused of taking part in anti-government protests and illegally possessing firearms; he was sentenced to death by crucifixion in 2014

Now, Saudi Arabia has dismissed his final appeal and he has no other legal options to fight the sentences. It appears that al-Nimr's connection to Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr — his uncle and a prominent religious leader and critic of the Saudi regime — is a large part of the case against him; with the elder al-Nimr scheduled to be executed, activists fear his nephew could also be executed within days. Activists say the younger al-Nimr was tortured, denied access to lawyers, and forced to sign a confession under duress; they claim there is no evidence of firearms offenses al-Nimr was charged with, and al-Nimr and his family deny all the charges against him. His trial did not meet international standards, and his appeal was held in secret without al-Nimr even knowing about it. "No one should have to go through the ordeal Ali has suffered—torture, forced ‘confession’, and an unfair, secret trial process," says an advocate at legal charity Reprieve. "Ali was a vulnerable child when he was arrested and this ordeal began. His execution — based apparently on the authorities’ dislike for his uncle, and his involvement in anti-government protests — would violate international law and the most basic standards of decency. It must be stopped."

About a third of all billionaires in America are Jewish

Steve Sailer looks at Jewish power in the United States in relation to media coverage of the Iran deal.

Blonde Danish teenager, 15, murdered her mother with a kitchen knife after watching ISIS videos of the beheading of British hostages online

A blond Danish teenager who murdered her mother after watching ISIS' sickening filmed beheadings of British hostages has been jailed along with her older jihadi lover. Lisa Borch was aged only 15 when in October 2014 she spent hours on YouTube watching footage of the savage decapitations of David Haines and Alan Henning. Afterwards she and her radical Muslim boyfriend Bakhtiar Mohammed Abdulla, 29, took a long-bladed kitchen knife and stabbed her mother Tina Römer Holtegaard at least 20 times at the home they shared in rural Kvissel. A court which sentenced Borch to nine years in jail heard how she became obsessed with militant Islam after falling in love with an unnamed Muslim man. But he jilted her when he moved back to Sweden to be with his wife and children. Nevertheless she found a new soulmate in Iraq-born Abdulla, whom she befriended after meeting at a refugee center near her home. Borch was sentenced to nine years in prison, the first of which will be spent in a youth offenders institute. Abdulla received 13 years and will supposedly be expelled from Denmark when his sentence is up.

An Islamic faith healer was stabbed to death at a black magic treatment center

Father-of-three Zakariyya Islam, 46, who specialised in expelling demons, was stabbed at the Ruqya Centre in east London. The Muslim healer had worked as an exorcist for around 20 years and co-founded the Islamic therapy business which offers advice on sorcery, witchcraft and “evil eye”. He treated people who believed that they were were possessed by evil spirits, also known as jinns. Police and paramedics rushed to the center where he was found with critical injuries to his torso. Despite desperate attempts to save his life he was pronounced dead at the scene. Zakariyya Islam was born in Bangladesh but grew up in Britain. In 2014, he hosted a conference on "The World of Jinns" at the East London Mosque which he visited regularly. The former caretaker at Stepney Green Secondary School and former cab driver was also a member of the Islamic Forum of Europe.

University of Queensland scientists have found a genetic basis for height and body mass differences between European populations

Queensland Brain Institute researcher Dr Matthew Robinson said that the findings could explain why people from northern European countries tended on average to be taller and slimmer than other Europeans. He said the genes that resulted in greater height correlated strongly with genes that reduced body mass index. "Our findings give a genetic basis to the stereotype of Scandinavians as being tall and lean," Dr Robinson said. The study paves the way to determine whether genetics also plays a role in creating national differences in disorders such as dementia, diabetes and heart disease. Fellow researcher Professor Peter Visscher said that the genetic differences were likely to result from historic natural selection on height and BMI. "The research suggests that tall nations are genetically more likely to be slim," Professor Visscher said. Dr Robinson said that on average, 24% of the genetic variation in height and 8% of the genetic variation in BMI could be explained by regional differences. "Countries' populations differ in many ways, from the height of their people to the prevalence of certain diseases," he said. The study looked at height and BMI differences in 9416 people from 14 European countries and used data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS).

Math tests in California: 69% of Asian students achieved the state targets compared to 49% of whites, 21% of Latinos and 16% of blacks

The racial achievement gap continues to be a problem in the California educational system. Asians are still the best performing student racial group while blacks remain the worst.

A Hispanic teenager has pleaded guilty to vandalizing a synagogue in his suburban Washington, DC, hometown

Sebastian Espinoza-Carranza, 18, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, has pleaded guilty in Montgomery County District Court in Rockville to charges of defacing religious property and malicious destruction of property. Espinoza-Carranza, whose sentencing is scheduled for October 20, 2015 was arrested on April 14, 2015 for spray-painting anti-Semitic graffiti, including swastikas, on the walls, windows and doors of Shaare Torah Synagogue one week earlier. He is expected to avoid jail time and instead will be required to visit the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, write an essay and help repair the synagogue. At the time of his arrest, the teen told detectives that he carried out the attack on the Shaare Torah Synagogue because he disliked the Jewish people who worshiped there.

An international team led by researchers at Uppsala University reports a surprising discovery from the genomes of eight Iberian Stone-Age farmer remains

The analyses revealed that early Iberian farmers are the closest ancestors to modern-day Basques, in contrast previous hypotheses that linked Basques to earlier pre-farming groups. The team could also demonstrate that farming was brought to Iberia by the same/similar groups that migrated to northern and central Europe and that the incoming farmers admixed with local, Iberian hunter-gather groups, a process that continued for at least 2 millennia. Most of the previous studies about the transition from small and mobile hunter-gatherer groups to larger and sedentary farming populations have focused on central and northern Europe, however much less in known about how this major event unfolded in Iberia. This time, the research team investigated eight individuals associated with archaeological remains from farming cultures in the El Portalón cave from the well-known Anthropological site Atapuerca in northern Spain. "The El Portalon cave is a fantastic site with amazing preservation of artifact material," says Dr. Cristina Valdiosera of Uppsala University and La Trobe University, one of the lead authors. "Every year we find human and animal bones and artifacts, including stone tools, ceramics, bone artifacts and metal objects, it is like a detailed book of the last 10,000 years, providing a wonderful understanding of this period. The preservation of organic remains is great and this has enabled us to study the genetic material complementing the archaeology," Dr. Cristina Valdiosera continues. From these individuals who lived 3,500 - 5,500 years ago, the authors generated the first genome-wide sequence data from Iberian ancient farmers and observed that these share a similar story to those of central and northern Europe. That is, they originate from a southern wave of expansion, and also admixed with local hunter-gatherer populations and spread agricultural practices through population expansions. The authors noticed that although they share these similarities with other European farmers, this early Iberian population has its own particularities. "We show that the hunter-gatherer genetic component increases with time during several millennia, which means that later farmers were genetically more similar to hunter-gatherers than their forefathers who brought farming to Europe," says Dr. Torsten Günther of Uppsala University and one of the lead authors. "We also see that different farmers mixed with different hunter-gatherer groups across Europe, for example, Iberian farmers mixed with Iberian hunter-gatherers and Scandinavian farmers mixed with Scandinavian hunter-gatherers." Dr. Cristina Valdiosera adds. The study also reports that compared to all modern Spanish populations, the El Portalón individuals are genetically most similar to modern-day Basques. Basques have so far - based on their distinct culture, non-indo-European language, but also genetic make-up - been thought of as a population with a long continuity in the area, probably since more than 10,000 years ago. "Our results show that the Basques trace their ancestry to early farming groups from Iberia, which contradicts previous views of them being a remnant population that trace their ancestry to Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups," says Prof. Mattias Jakobsson of Uppsala University, who headed the study. "The difference between Basques and other Iberian groups is these latter ones show distinct features of admixture from the east and from north Africa." he continues. These findings shed light into the demographic processes taking place in Europe and Iberia during the last 5,000 years which highlights the unique opportunities gained from the collaborative work of archaeologists, anthropologists and geneticists in the analysis of ancient DNA. "One of the great things about working with ancient DNA is that the data obtained is like opening a time capsule. Seeing the similarities between modern Basques and these early farmers directly tells us that Basques remained relatively isolated for the last 5,000 years but not much longer," says Dr. Torsten Günther.

Israel has begun building a fence along part of the country's eastern border with Jordan as Syrian civil war refugees and other migrants flee their countries

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "We see today what happens when countries lose control of their borders." He seemed to be referring to the massive influx of refugees from the war-torn Middle East and African migrants heading to Europe. Netanyahu earlier bemoaned the "human tragedy" of Syria's civil war and said that Israel has aided its victims. However, he says that Israel is too small to take them. Israel already built fences along its border with Egypt to stop African migrants and in the Golan Heights bordering Syria.

In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted 129 instances of black men killed by “legal intervention” — that is to say, by police

By contrast, in that same year, 6,739 black men were murdered, overwhelmingly by young men like themselves. Since 2001, even as rates of violent crime have dropped dramatically, more than 90,000 black men in the United States have been killed by other black men. Every year, the casualty count of black-on-black crime is twice that of the death toll of 9/11.

SAT scores dropped significantly for the class of college-bound seniors in 2015

At the same time, SAT scores showed continued patterns in which white and Asian students, on average, receive higher scores than do black and Latino students. The numbers show that Asian-American and white test takers are comfortably in the 500 range for all three parts of the test, while other groups are in the 400s and for the most part in the mid-400s for all three parts. Everybody's scores are going down except for Asians. The National Center for Fair and Open Testing has kept track of the gains on the combined scores on all three sections, by race and ethnicity, since the introduction of the writing test for the class of 2006. Those statistics, combined with the new data, show that between the class of 2006 and the class of 2015, every group except Asians has seen its totals go down. American Indians/Alaskan natives and Mexicans/Mexican Americans have seen the largest drop in composite scores. The scores for American Indians and Alaskan natives shrank by 32 points to 1,423 while Mexicans/Mexican Americans have seen their test scores drop by 28 points to 1,343. Since 2006, the score for white students has eroded by six points, bringing their average to 1,576. Average test scores for African American students (1,277) has dropped 14 points.The College Board also released new data on Advanced Placement exams. On the AP tests as well, there is a clear racial and ethnic gap, with 72% of Asian test takers earning at least one three, compared to 66% of white students, 50% of Latino students, 46% of Native American students and 32% of black students.

Three-year-olds in Britain have been told "the non-Jews" are “evil” in a Kindergarten worksheet handed out at ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools in north London

It's not uncommon to be taught that non-Jewish people are evil in ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools.