Germany: Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing catastrophe over her failed migrant policy, according to a new report

During the first six months of 2016, migrants committed 142,500 crimes, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office. And the country has been hit by a spate of horrendous violent crime including rapes, sexual and physical assaults, stabbings, home invasions, robberies, burglaries and drug trafficking. Adding to the country's woes is the fact that thousands of people have gone missing after travelling to the country on invitation from the country's leader. Germany took in more than 1.1 million migrants in the past year and parts of the country are crippled with a lack of infrastructure. Now the true reality is hitting home ahead of next year's elections as the far right surges in the polls threatening to topple the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Merkel. According to a report by the international policy council the Gatestone Institute, local police in many parts of the country admit that they are stretched to the limit. The report states: "The rape of a ten-year-old girl in Leipzig, the largest city in Saxony, has drawn renewed attention to the spiraling levels of violent crime perpetrated by migrants in cities and towns across Germany."

Hillary Clinton's staffers knew as early as 2011 that Anthony Weiner had been messaging an underage girl, but they did nothing about it, according to WikiLeaks emails

John Podesta - now chair of Clinton's presidential campaign - and Neera Tanden, another adviser, were forwarded news of an investigation into Weiner's online contact with a 17-year-old Delaware high school student by Jennifer Palmieri, the current campaign communications director, in June 2011. At the time he was married to Huma Abedin, another member of Clinton's inner circle, who is now at the center of fresh FBI investigation into the handling of classified material while Clinton was in office. The email detailed lurid claims of private messages to an underage girl being investigated by police.

Pudgy older fathers live longer, are more attractive to the opposite sex and are better at passing on their genes than their leaner counterparts, scientists have claimed

Becoming fatter after fatherhood due to decreasing testosterone levels may not fit the “macho” ideal, but it actually prolongs lives and strengthens immune systems, according to Richard Bribiescas, professor of anthropology and deputy provost at Yale University. There is evidence that these men are less likely to suffer from heart attacks and prostate cancer, while a study in 2008 found that men with high metabolisms were around 50% more likely to die in a given year than those whose bodies burned up less energy at rest.

Happy Halloween!

2015’s 12% increase in homicides reported to the FBI is the largest one-year homicide increase in nearly half a century

The primary victims have been black. An additional 900 black males were killed in 2015 compared with 2014, resulting in a homicide victimization rate that is now nine times greater for black males than for white males. The brutality of these killings can be shocking. Over the weekend of September 16, 2016 a 15-year-old boy in Chicago was burned alive in a dumpster. More police are being killed in 2016 too. Gun murders of police officers are up 47% nationally through October 21, 2016 compared with the same period in 2015. In Chicago gun assaults on officers are up 100%. In New York City attacks on officers are up 23%. Recently, four California officers have been deliberately murdered. Officers are second-guessing their own justified use of force for fear of being labeled racist and losing their jobs, if not their freedom. On October 5, 2016 a female officer in Chicago was beaten unconscious by a suspect in a car crash, who repeatedly bashed her face into the concrete and tore out chunks of her hair. She refrained from using her gun, she said, because she didn’t want to become the next viral video in the Black Lives Matter narrative. The Chicago Police Department now wants to institutionalize such dangerous second-guessing. Its proposed guidelines for using force would require police to consider the “impact that even a reasonable use of force may have on those who observe” it. The Black Lives Matter narrative about an epidemic of racially biased police shootings is false: Four studies published in 2016 showed that if there is a bias in police shootings, it works in favor of blacks and against whites. Officers’ use of lethal force following an arrest for a violent felony is more than twice the rate for white as for black arrestees, according to one study. Another study showed that officers were three times less likely to shoot unarmed black suspects than unarmed whites. No government agency is more dedicated to the proposition that black lives matter than the police. If the next administration continues to disregard that truth in favor of a false narrative about systemic law-enforcement racism, the next four years will see more urban violence and race riots, and more dead police officers.

The strain of H.I.V. responsible for almost all AIDS cases in the United States, which was carried from Zaire to Haiti around 1967, spread from there to New York City around 1971

From New York, it spread to San Francisco around 1976. H.I.V. was carried from Kinshasa to Haiti in the 1960s — most likely by one of the thousands of Haitian civil servants recruited by the United Nations to work in the former Belgian Congo after colonial rule collapsed. Africa has a dozen H.I.V. groups, and Haiti’s epidemic came from one of those.

Researchers have identified two new genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD) among African Americans

Despite the fact that AD is more common in African Americans than whites, the AD genetic risk profile for African Americans is more poorly understood. While more than 20 genes have been identified as risk factors for AD in whites, fewer than five have been identified for African Americans. In 2013, a genome-wide association study of AD in more than 5,500 African Americans identified two genetic risk factors for AD. This study looked at genetic variants across subjects' entire genome and compared their frequency in cases versus controls. Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) used these same subjects, but added additional AD risk information (smoking status, diabetes status, education level) to their statistical modeling to increase the power of the study. By doing so they were able to identify two new genes (COBL and SLC10A2) associated with risk of AD in African Americans. "There are currently no medications for AD that slow or stop the progression of the disease. Genes that increase risk for AD are potential targets for new disease-modifying AD drug therapies. Our study identifies two potentially "drugable" targets," explains corresponding author Jesse Mez, MD, MS, assistant professor of neurology at BUSM and associate director of the Boston University Alzheimer's Disease & CTE Center Clinical Core. According to the researchers the methodology they employed for this study allowed them to make an important discovery without investing more money in genotyping or more effort to recruit volunteers. They believe that a similar methodology could be used for many other diseases to make new genetic discoveries without new large investments.

Two studies may explain why people of African descent respond more strongly to infection, and are more prone to autoimmune diseases

DNA acquired from breeding with Neanderthals may explain why people of European descent respond differently to infection than those of African descent, two studies suggest. The findings might also offer insight into why people of African descent are more prone to autoimmune diseases caused by an overactive immune system.

A team of scientists has identified MNX1 as a new oncogene - a gene than can cause cancer - that is more active in African American prostate cancer than in European American prostate cancer

The finding suggests that genetic factors can contribute, at last in part, to the higher incidence of prostate cancer among African American men compared with men of other ethnic groups. "African Americans have about one-and-a-half times the incidence and twice the mortality associated with prostate cancer of European Americans, and the reasons for this are not clear," said senior author Dr. Michael Ittmann, professor of pathology & immunology at Baylor College of Medicine and the Michael E. DeBakey Department of VA Medical Center. Most scientists think that some of the health disparities among ethnic groups can be explained by differences in biology. The scientists discovered that, compared with normal prostate tissues, both African American and European American prostate cancer have MNX1 genes that are more active and produce more of the MNX1 protein. However, MNX1 is significantly more active in African American prostate cancer than in European American prostate cancer. In summary, in African American prostate cancer androgen and the AKT signaling pathway can increase the activity of MNX1, which in turn increases lipid metabolism. Increased lipid metabolism is a hallmark of aggressive prostate cancer, which is more common in African American men.

In the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of genetic risk factors for inflammatory bowel disease in African Americans, a research team has identified two regions of the genome (loci) associated with ulcerative colitis only in people of African descent

The study identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) - at ZNF649 and at LSAMP - with genome-wide significance in ulcerative colitis. These SNPs are very specific to sub-Saharan Africans and are not found in any other populations - making these findings unique and novel. This is the first time African- specific loci are known to contribute to inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), and these loci will be added to the already known 200+ loci in IBD to further expand the IBD genetic architecture. The team also found evidence of overlapping genome-wide associations for ulcerative colitis and IBD in African- Americans and other populations. The detection of variants associated with IBD risk in only people of African descent demonstrates the importance of studying the genetics of IBD and other complex diseases in populations beyond those of European ancestry.

German police have arrested a 19-year-old Moroccan migrant on suspicion of raping a 90-year-old woman who had been attending a church service

Dusseldorf police have announced that they had arrested the man after they had launched a search for the assailant after the daylight attack on the grandmother. The elderly woman had left in the church in the heart of the German city center when the assailant pushed her into a narrow alley between two pubs. In the alley, which is usually closed off to the public and used for storing rubbish from the pubs, the perpetrator is said to have demanded money from the woman before sexually assaulting her. Dusseldorf police were able to construct a likeness of the suspect after a police officer recognized the man at a trains station. The DNA of the man, a Moroccan migrant who had previously lived in Spain, matched the traces found at the crime scene. The man had been previously arrested for robbing a teenager in May 2016. The news comes after the chief of the German police union Rainer Wendt said that criminal migrants from north Africa were laughing at the German justice system as they are often allowed to go free after committing crimes. “They despise our country and laugh at our justice,” Wendt said. “If there is no pre-trial detention made, no imprisonment is imposed, and no deportations carried out then the police make multiple arrests and the perpetrators get away with it,” he added and stated that the migrants are often then released. Wendt also referred to the Casablanca Report that documented around 2,244 North African migrant criminals in the city of Dusseldorf and the police union leader stated that the figures were similar for other German cities around the country. Earlier in 2016 refugees burnt down a shelter for asylum seekers in the city amid claims that the fire had been started over a dispute over food.

Milwaukee: A black police officer who fatally shot another black man in August 2016, sparking several nights of unrest, has been charged with sexually assaulting a man the night after the shooting, after they watched coverage of the riots on television at a bar

Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown, 24, has been arrested. The alleged victim, unidentified in a criminal complaint, told police on August 15, 2016 that Heaggan-Brown had sexually assaulted him while off duty. Heaggan-Brown fatally shot 23-year-old Sylville Smith on August 13, 2016. Police said that he was holding a gun when he was shot after a brief chase. Police said that Heaggan-Brown is suspended and in custody and they have launched an internal investigation. Police Chief Ed Flynn said that nothing in Heaggan-Brown's pre-hiring background check suggested that he would be likely to engage in wrongdoing. Heaggan-Brown's attorney, Michael Steinle, didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Heaggan-Brown's bail was set at $100,000. He's set to appear at a preliminary hearing on October 27, 2016.

Eight members of a South Asian sex gang in Rotherham, England have been convicted of sexually exploiting teenage girls after making them suffer degrading and violent acts

ageer Hussain, 30, openly boasted that he was racist and told his distraught 13-year-old white victim: "All white girls are good for is sex and they are just sl*gs." Sageer was convicted of four rapes and one indecent assault and his elder brother Basharat, 40, of indecent assault against the same girl at Sheffield Crown Court. Six other members of the gang were also found guilty of a further ten charges of sexually abusing the three girls – and face jail when sentenced. Sageer’s victim - who is now 27 - told police, their MP and the then home secretary David Blunkett that she had been repeatedly raped by Sageer. But the allegations were dropped after men threatened to burn down the family home and gang-rape her mother.

Black women under the age of 45 are at increased risk for an aggressive form of breast cancer [estrogen receptor (ER) negative] if they experienced a high number of pregnancies, never breast fed, and/or had higher waist-to-hip ratio

Mortality from breast cancer is markedly higher in African American women as compared to white women in the United States, in part because they are more likely to be diagnosed with ER-negative tumors, which are more aggressive and difficult to treat. African American women are also diagnosed with breast cancer at younger ages.

The largest study of genetic variation in the human Y chromosome has revealed that half of all western European men are descended from an individual male thought to have lived 4,000 years ago

The team of researchers believe that this man was one of the earliest people to rule Europe in the Bronze Age. The study also shows explosive rises in male population numbers between 55,000 and 4,000 years ago. Using data from the 1000 Genomes Project, the study analyses the sequence differences of 1,244 human Y chromosomes from 26 populations around the world. Analyzing the Y chromosome of modern men can help us discover the history of our ancestors. The Y chromosome, which is only passed from father to son, is linked to male characteristics and behaviors. The team of 42 researchers involved in the study used the data from the 1,244 Y chromosomes to build a tree that reveals how the men are related to one another genetically. All the men studied were proven to have descended from a single man who lived approximately 190,000 years ago. Lead author Dr Yali Xue from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute said that this pattern tells us that there was an explosive increase in the number of men carrying a certain type of Y chromosome, within just a few generations. They only observed this phenomenon in males, and only in a few groups of men. One of the scientists involved in the study, Dr Chris Tyler-Smith, said that genetics can't tell us why it happened but they know that a tiny number of elite males were controlling reproduction and dominating the population. With half of western Europe descending from just one man, there can only be speculations as to why these increases in population happened. The results reveal that the earliest explosions in population occurred 50,000-55,000 years ago, across Asia and Europe, and a later explosion occurred 15,000 years ago in the Americas. The researchers believe this increase in population may be due to the movement of humans out of Africa and settling in Europe and Asia, where there were plenty of resources allowing the population to thrive. The study states that there was a notable increase in the number of lineages outside Africa around 50,000-55,000 years ago, perhaps reflecting the geographical expansion and differentiation of Eurasian populations as they settled the vast expanse of these continents. Later explosions in population occurred between 4,000 and 8,000 years ago in sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe, South Asia, and East Asia. The later population increases are thought to be explored by advances in technology. The best explanation is they may have resulted from advances in technology that could be controlled by small groups of men. Wheeled transport, metal working and organized warfare are all candidate explanations that can now be investigated further. The data used in this study was gathered from the 1000 Genomes Project, which ran between 2008 and 2015, creating the largest public catalogue of genetic variation in the human Y chromosome.

If the Black Lives Matter crowd really cared about black lives they would work to convince their "brothers" to stop shooting each other, since that is overwhelmingly where most blacks are killed

They might also think a bit about reducing the horrific levels of violent crime that seems to be part and parcel of their manhood ritual, which is why police target them in the first place. Whatever credibility BLM has is wasted when they embrace the cause of thugs like Michael Brown, a six-foot-four 265-pound monster who robbed a convenience store and beat up a clerk before trying to wrestle a gun away from a cop.

A Mexican judge who presided over appeals by drug cartel figures including Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been assassinated while jogging outside his home

Judge Vicente Bermudez, 37, was executed by a gunman who ran up and shot him in the back of the head. The killing happened in Metepec, 40 miles from Mexico City, and was captured by a surveillance camera. The judge had dealt with legal challenges brought by lawyers representing Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel. The judge had also dealt with appeals by lawyers on behalf of Miguel Trevino, ex-leader of the Zetas cartel. Trevino is being held at the maximum security Altiplano jail which is close to the judge's home. Guzman's lawyers have filed numerous legal challenges aimed at preventing his extradition to the United States.

Five men and a woman have been found alive on a road in western Mexico with their hands amputated and their foreheads marked with the words "I'm a thief"

The victims were mutilated by a criminal group linked to drug trafficking, which also left a dead man on the road and two bags with the severed hands in Tlaquepaque, near Guadalajara, Mexico's second biggest city, police said. "They're in a delicate state of health," local police commander Roberto Larios said. "Their stumps were wrapped in plastic." Drug cartels often leave the dismembered bodies of victims on roadsides in Mexico, making the discovery of six mutilated people alive all the more unusual. The dead man, 39, was apparently beaten to death and his hands were not cut off. He was married to the woman, who is 44. The other men are aged between 25 and 43. Authorities suspect that the gruesome crime is linked to drug dealing. Two of the victims have rap sheets. Witnesses say that the victims were driven to the site in two vehicles and abandoned there with a note that said "this happened to us for being thieves." The message, signed "anti-thief elite group," also threatens thieves and those who abuse women or children. The western state of Jalisco, where Guadalajara is located, has seen horrific acts of violence in recent years linked to the powerful Jalisco New Generation drug cartel.

Female journalist raped by knife-wielding migrants at Jungle camp in Calais, France

A female interpreter working on a documentary about the plight of vulnerable refugee children has been raped at knife-point in the Calais migrant camp, French police have revealed. The terrified 38-year-old was robbed by three armed men from the Jungle, one of whom raped her whilst the other two threatened her colleague with a blade. The unidentified woman, who was helping a journalist from a French news broadcaster, was attacked in the early hours of this morning at the entrance of the notorious shanty town. French prosecutors have confirmed that they had proof the woman was raped and have collected DNA evidence to help them find the attackers. The trio are believed to be from Afghanistan, and are now on the run from the police. The woman was living in Paris, although originally from Afghanistan, and had been employed to interpret for migrants speaking the Pashtun language which is common in her homeland and neighboring Pakistan. The shocking incident is just the latest example of the extreme violence plaguing the Calais migrant camp, and comes just a day after journalists from Sky News were attacked by asylum seekers hurling rocks.

The European Union has been urged to prepare for the arrival of jihadists if the Islamic State (IS) is driven out of its Iraqi stronghold, Mosul

Security Commissioner Julian King said that even a small number of militants would pose a serious threat. Some of the Islamic militants involved in the deadly Islamic State attack on Paris in November 2015 had recently returned from Syria.

A Jewish mother made a bomb threat to a synagogue and tried to pin it on another parent after a row over a children's party invite escalated into a viscous harassment campaign

Claire Mann, 48, bombarded Roz Page with abusive messages and tried to blame her for the hoax by sending similar texts to her own phone. As part of the campaign she sent a text to the local synagogue claiming that there was a bomb in a hotel where Israeli guests were staying, Wood Green Crown Court heard. Page claims the harassment began because Mann believed her eight-year-old daughter had been snubbed when she didn't receive a birthday party invitation. Mann was convicted of two counts of intending to pervert the course of justice. The first relates to the bomb hoax and harassment between July 1 and July 21 2013, while the second relates to a separate claim at the Family Court that she was a qualified psychologist.

Blacks in London are nearly five times more likely to be homeless than white people

African and Afro-Caribbean people are 4.6 times more likely to have been accepted as “homeless and in priority need” by their local authority compared to white Londoners. The three worst London boroughs are Haringey, where black people are 9.5 times more likely to be homeless, Kingston-upon-Thames (9.2) and Harrow (7.5). The research, using 2015-16 local council data, also found that Asians in London are 1.5 times more likely to be homeless and in priority need — the highest category of homelessness.

Potatoes and cereals increase the risk of heart disease while high fat dairy products cut the risk, according to a new study which rejects accepted wisdom on a healthy diet

The research, which looked at dietary habits in 42 European countries over 16 years, conflicts with current government nutrition guidance and has led to calls for new advice to be issued. The work examined food consumption, heart disease and cholesterol levels in the most up-to-date international statistics and raised questions about the reliability of traditional data, much of which was carried out decades ago. Dr Pavel Grasgruber, a sports scientist and lead author of the study, from Masaryk University in the Czech Republic, called for current dietary advice to be overturned. He said: “Current heart disease risk is based on flawed data. This study flies in the face of accepted wisdom on diet. It is quite clear consumption of dairy products and meat is not linked with heart disease risk, as was traditionally believed. The biggest problem are cereals, wheat and potatoes, which increase the risk of heart disease. "I can responsibly recommend people change their diets and to lower their carbohydrate load.” Dr Grasgruber said that red meat appeared to have no direct effect on heart disease risk. However, high fat dairy products such as cheese seem to have a protective effect, which is also supported by recent evidence. He recommended high consumption of citrus fruit, walnuts, olives, fish, vegetables and dairy for low heart disease risk and longevity. Leading cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra said: “This modern day study supports the growing view that the real dietary factors driving heart disease are the consumption of excess carbohydrate in the form of rice, wheat and potato.” Dr Malcolm Kendrick said: “The rate of heart disease goes down with a high cholesterol diet which suggests any link between fat, cholesterol and heart disease can now be refuted.” Dr Trudi Deakin, a leading nutritionist, said: “The 1983 dietary guidelines came in the absence of any rigorous trial data to show saturated fat caused cardiovascular disease and were based on flawed science from the 1950s and 1960s.”

Black South African student rejects science because it discriminates against witchcraft

She wants to restart science from an African perspective. How do you restart science from an African perspective? Apparently by practicing black magic.

An 87-year-old woman repeatedly up before the courts for denying that the Holocaust took place – has been handed down a new 11-month term behind bars in Germany

Ursula Haverbeck-Wetzel remains free while she appeals the latest sentence meted out at a court in Germany. A court in the German spa town of Bad Oeynhausen found her guilty of breaking Germany's strict post-war rules making the denial of Nazi war crimes an imprisonable offence. In this instance, she denied in published articles that the Holocaust happened and that the death factory of Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland was nothing more than a labor camp. The court heard she also wrote to the Central Council of Jews in Germany claiming that the mass murder of six million Jews had never taken place. It is the seventh time Haverbeck-Wetzel has been sentenced for denying the Holocaust, the third time she had received a jail sentence. In 2004, she founded a group that campaigned against the Holocaust having taken place - a group that the government banned six years later. In Germany, anyone who publicly denies, endorses or plays down the extermination of Jews during Adolf Hitler's regime can be sentenced to a maximum of five years in jail.

Police in Alabama have arrested four black men in connection with the beating of a white Alabama high school student who had posted pro-Blue Lives Matter Comments in support of cops

In a statement, Sylacauga Police Chief Kelley Johnson says that four recent Sylacauga High School students were arrested following the September 30, 2016 attack against 17-year-old Brian Ogle. Ogle's mother, Brandi Allen, says that her son responded to students wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts at his school with Blue Lives Matter. He was hospitalized with serious head injuries. Two of the four suspects, 20-year-old Quartez Walker and 19-year-old Bobby Brown, were taken into custody at Stillman College. La Noah Ealy Jr, 18, was arrested at Auburn University in Montgomery, while 20-year-old Daveon Nix was arrested in Sylacauga. Walker was booked on a first-degree assault charge and his bond was set at $20,000. The other three suspects face charges of second-degree assault and are being held on $15,000 each.

Black immigrants, on average, earn more money and use less welfare than blacks born in the United States, raising doubts about the reach and impact of systemic racism

In fact, 30% of black immigrants have college degrees, compared with less than 20% of American-born blacks.

An illegal immigrant from El Salvador is charged with kidnapping a 6-year-old girl from her Texas home and sexually assaulting her

He’s been identified as Edis Moya Alas of El Salvador. Police say that they found the girl with Alas at Titus Park, not far from her home. They made the big break thanks to a neighbor who reported hearing screams in the area. “The young child immediately saw police officers and ran towards us. She was very scared. She was very nervous,” Fort Worth PD said. “We owe a great debt to the citizen that actually heard the screams and notified us to go into that field area.” The girl’s parents woke up around four o’clock Saturday morning to find their front door open and their daughter gone. Alas is charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child and aggravated kidnapping.

Indian teen dies after 68-day fast

For more than two months, a 13-year-old in India took part in an extreme religious fast. Recently she called off that fast, but she fell into a coma two days later and died of cardiac arrest and now her parents, well-off jewelers in Hyderabad, and other family members have been charged with homicide. Aradhana Samdariya's relatives insist that she chose to embark on the 68-day fast of her own volition as part of a ritual in Jainism, an ancient Indian religion that believes "the way to liberation and bliss is to live lives of harmlessness and renunciation" and whose foundation lies in the "concern for the welfare of every being in the universe." But others, including the children's rights group that filed the complaint against Aradhana's family, say that the young teen was coerced, perhaps in the misguided belief it would make her father's business more profitable. Aradhana's grandfather notes that it's not the first time the girl had fasted: He says that she had pulled off an eight-day fast and a 34-day fast, and so was determined to go even longer this time. Apparently the father's business was faltering and the family's guru suggested having Aradhana fast for good luck. According to some accounts she lived on nothing but boiled water during her starvation. Psychologists say that children are especially vulnerable to the guilt that may lure them into such dangerous practices. "The child is made to believe it is for the good of the family," one expert says. "What is sacrificed is the health of the minor."

Despite the concept of a united Ireland being at the core of Irish political debate since partition in 1921, it is astonishing how little in-depth study has been done exploring what it would be like

How would the administration work? Would it involve any major societal changes? Would it be an economic success or basket case? A team of academics from Canada, Switzerland and the US have now tackled the economics question, and have modelled how a 32-county Ireland might fare economically. Their conclusions? Surprisingly good. Reunification could deliver a boon to the enlarged island state worth over €35 billion in eight years. And the North would benefit enormously, with more modest gains for the South. Dr Kurt Hübner from the University of British Colombia in Vancouver led the project, entitled Modelling Irish Unification. Hübner, originally from Germany, received his academic qualifications from the University of Berlin and is an expert on European affairs. He outlines the basis of the research that concluded that a united Ireland would be a winner on the economic sphere. The study required modelling to foresee how the dual economics might combine and that work was done by Renger van Nieuwkoon from Switzerland. Hübner and his colleagues were able to avail of their familiarity with similar work that had been done in Germany after reunification.

‘Birth of a Nation’ flops in opening weekend at box office

“The Birth of a Nation” flopped at the box office in its opening weekend, cementing its place among the steepest falls from grace in recent Hollywood history. The biopic about slave rebellion leader Nat Turner was thought to have the makings of a commercial and critical hit when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016. Ten months later, it opened to an estimated $7.1 million in sixth place with its awards prospects severely hampered, even though it opened in more than 2,100 locations, an unusually wide rollout for a low-budget film. Renewed scrutiny of rape allegations leveled against its director and star, Nate Parker, have completely overwhelmed the movie’s rollout and sparked public debates about whether seeing the movie was a tacit endorsement of its creator.

Mexican man accused of raping eight-year-old ordered to buy her father beer

A 55-year-old former pastor in Mexico was accused of sexually abusing an 8-year-old girl. His punishment? He had to buy her father two crates of beer. The Mexican was only arrested and charged with aggravated rape after media coverage of the incident drew outrage. The sexual assault took place in the "remote indigenous community" of Santiago Quetzalapa, which is ruled by a system known as "traditions and customs." The system allows indigenous people to maintain traditions, but it also allows their leaders to make decisions based on belief instead of the law. The head of a human rights organization in Mexico says that under traditions and customs many sexual violence cases "are settled this way: with a bottle of liquor."

Yawning doesn't mean you're bored, it just means you've got one big, hot brain in your head, according to a new study

Researcher Andrew Gallup had his students go online to collect videos of animals yawning. He then found that he was able to predict the yawn length of various animals based on their brain weight and the number of brain cells in their cortex. “We were just really blown out of the water,” Gallup said. “It’s such a strong predictor.” Perhaps surprisingly, body and mouth size had nothing to do with yawn length. The explanation for brain size correlating to yawn length comes from a theory first proposed by Gallup in 2007. He argues that animals yawn involuntarily to cool their brains. If that's true, it stands to reason that larger brains would require a larger yawn to cool. And it explains why humans' yawns, at 6.5 seconds, are the longest yawns in the animal kingdom, beating out those of gorillas, lions, elephants, and more. However, not all scientists are convinced yawning serves a cooling function, pointing to its contagiousness as evidence of a sociological function. Gallup isn't swayed. “Whether yawning functions specifically to cool the brain can still be debated, but there is no debate on whether yawning has thermoregulatory consequences," he says.

Race and crime in New York City: Of the 1.8 million arrests, tickets and stops in 2015, between 80% and 95% depending on the category involved blacks and Hispanics

The numbers cited include all felony and misdemeanor arrests, juvenile arrests, stops, criminal court summonses, moving traffic violation tickets and transit summonses. The number of stops, tickets and arrests was actually 6.7% lower in 2015 — 1,783,414 compared to 1,913,015 in 2014.