The chief rabbi at Chabad headquarters in Melbourne, Australia has resigned, apologizing for his conduct toward victims of child sexual abuse and their families

“I recognize that my conduct towards victims and their families did not demonstrate … behavior to the extent necessary of a rabbi in my position,” Rabbi Tzvi Telsner wrote in an open letter. “We all must be aware of how our words and actions impact on others and therefore would like to take this opportunity to apologize for my conduct and urge everyone to show compassion and support towards victims and their families throughout the moised [institution] and broader community.” Telsner had been under mounting pressure to resign following his testimony in February 2015 at the Royal Commission, a government inquiry into how Chabad responded to the child sex abuse scandal in Sydney and Melbourne. During the hearing, Telsner was accused of orchestrating the shunning of whistleblowers and their families, having warned his flock against speaking to police or the media without the permission of a rabbi. He also claimed pedophiles and gays could be cured. Recently, Telsner was embroiled in a heated exchange with a victim of child sexual abuse, which is understood to have triggered his resignation. Manny Waks, the only Jewish victim in Australia to go public, posted on Facebook, “Finally. The news we have all been awaiting … We feel vindicated. We feel that justice has prevailed.” Telsner is the fourth rabbi to resign in the wake of the Royal Commission. Three men associated with Chabad in Sydney and Melbourne were convicted of child sex crimes dating back to the late 1980s.

Italy’s simmering anti-immigrant sentiment has been stoked by the murder of an elderly couple in their home in Sicily by an African asylum seeker

Mamadou Kamara, an 18-year-old black African immigrant from the Ivory Coast, slit the throat of Vincenzo Solano, 68, and then attacked his Spanish-born wife, Mercedes Ibanez, 70. Ibanez fell to her death from a second-floor balcony, during a robbery that turned violent. Kamara is one of thousands of migrants and refugees living at a vast reception center at nearby Mineo, in south-eastern Sicily. They are accommodated there after arriving by boat from Libya, and wait sometimes for months to have their asylum applications assessed. The migrants are allowed to come and go freely from the facility, a former US military base where prostitution, links with organised crime and the trade in illicit goods is said to be rife. Kamara, who was rescued in the Mediterranean on June 8, 2015 and brought with other migrants to the port of Catania in Sicily, broke into the pensioners’ flat in the village of Palagonia, six miles away, and slit the throat of Solano. The elderly man’s wife was found dead in the courtyard of their three-story apartment block. Investigators believe that she may have fallen over the balcony in panic after trying to flee the black African attacker. Kamara was arrested after police searched his bag as he returned to the migrant center. Inside they found a mobile telephone, a laptop computer, a video camera and a pair of trousers, belonging to Solano, that were covered in blood. The young African man claimed to have “found” the items, but police arrested him and are expected to charge him with two counts of murder. Forensic police worked into the early hours gathering evidence at the elderly couple's flat. The trousers were identified as belonging to Solano by one of his daughters, who was contacted by police. The pensioner had retired back to his native Sicily a decade ago after working for years in a Mercedes car factory in Germany. Detectives believe that other migrants may have been involved in the burglary. More than 100,000 refugees have arrived by boat in Italy in 2015, making the crossing from Libya in overcrowded rubber dinghies and leaky fishing boats. In 2014, a record 170,000 arrived on Italian shores.

New Jersey: A black elementary school teacher who retained his job despite being late to work 111 times in two years said that the most important meal of the day was to blame for his tardiness

"I have a bad habit of eating breakfast in the morning, and I lost track of time," 15-year veteran teacher Arnold Anderson said. In a decision filed August 19, 2015 an arbitrator in New Jersey rejected an attempt by the Roosevelt Elementary School in New Brunswick to fire Anderson from his $90,000-a-year job. The arbitrator did criticize Anderson's claim that the quality of his teaching outweighed his tardiness, but still ruled that he was entitled to progressive discipline. Anderson was late 46 times in the most recent school year through March 20, 2015 and 65 times in the previous school year, the arbitrator said. The arbitrator wrote Anderson relied on the "micro-quibbles of a few unpersuasive explanations, with a macro-default position that even when he is late he nevertheless delivers a superb educational experience to his grateful students". Anderson said that he was one to two minutes late to school "at the most" but was prepared and was never late for class. "I have to cut out eating breakfast at home," he said. Anderson remains suspended without pay until January 1, 2016. The arbitrator found that the district failed to provide Anderson with due process by not providing him with a formal notice of inefficiency. The district also failed to giver the veteran teacher 90 days to correct his failings before terminating his employment. Republican Governor Chris Christie referenced the case in a tweet. Christie wrote: "Think I'm too tough on the teachers union? This is what we're dealing with in NJ."

The 2013 federal National Assessment of Educational Progress scores for 12th graders in reading: Blacks who are the children of college graduates average 274, which is the same as whites who are the children of high school dropouts

The poor academic performance of blacks is generally blamed on poverty but even blacks who don't grow up in poverty are generally under-performers when it comes to education.

In the years since Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), there have been many well-intentioned but unsuccessful efforts to close America’s racial and ethnic gaps in academic achievement

At the time of Brown, 75% to 85% of the nation’s black students (and 75% of Latinos) scored below the median for whites on standardized academic tests. That has been the case ever since. Despite extensive government intervention and numerous educational reforms, the disparities remain. This persistent achievement gap has become one of the most comprehensively documented facts in American educational history.

Black gay journalist murders white co-workers

And, of course, he blames racism.

A performance gap on the ACT college entrance exam persisted in 2015 between California's Latino and white high school students, according to new test results

The gap between Latino and white students has remained since at least 2011. In 2011, 25% of Latino students met three or more ACT targets, compared to 69% of white students. In 2015, 28% of Latino students met three or more, compared to 70% of whites — representing a continuous gap of more than 40 percentage points. The ethnic breakdown of test takers is not precisely the same as the state's: nearly 28% of test takers were white, and about 38% were Latino. According to census data, California's population between the ages of 18 and 24 is 31% white and 47% Latino. In all four subject areas, English, reading, math and science, the difference between the percentage of white and Latino students meeting ACT benchmarks ranged from 37 to 39 percentage points.

For every illegal migrant household that leaves the United States, Americans would recoup nearly three-quarters of a million dollars ($719,350), according to 2010 data collected by Heritage scholar Robert Rector

The lifetime savings accrued from one deported illegal household would provide funds for 125 low-income inner city students to receive the maximum Pell Grant award in 2015-2016 ($5,775); it could cover the cost of pre-kindergarten for 90 at-risk children (around $8,000 per child); or it could cover the one year cost of Medicaid for 124 enrollees ($5,790 based on FY2011 data). In reality, “a modest increase in enforcement (such as E-verify or visa tracking) would cause significant attrition in the illegal population – sending millions of illegals home on their own at no cost to the U.S. taxpayer.” said Jessica Vaughan, policy director at the non-partisan Center for Immigration Studies. There’s good evidence for Vaughan’s argument. “Arizona’s population of unauthorized immigrants of working age fell by about 17%” in the course of a single year, after the state began to enforce E-verify, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Illegal migrants cost U.S. taxpayers a net total of nearly $100 billion annually, concluded a 2010 investigation by the Federation for American Immigration Reform. The 2010 report calculated the total contributions (mainly taxes) generated by the illegal migrants, and then subtracted the cost of taxpayer aid to those migrants. The aid includes education, subsidized housing, food stamps, tax credits, medical expenses. Overall, the report found illegal migrants cost taxpayers a total of $113 billion a year. The report then “accounts for taxes paid by illegal aliens [which is] about $13 billion a year, resulting in a net cost to taxpayers of about $100 billion.”

According to Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) legal policy analyst Jon Feere, who testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security in April 2015, between 350,000 and 400,000 children are born annually to an illegal-alien mother residing in the United States — as many as one in ten births nationwide

As of 2010, four out of five children of illegal aliens residing in the United States were born here — some 4 million kids. Reporting that finding, the Pew Research Center noted that, while illegal immigrants make up about 4% of the adult population, “because they have high birthrates, their children make up a much larger share of both the newborn population (8%) and the child population (7%) in this country.” According to CIS, 71% of illegal-alien headed households with children received some sort of welfare in 2009, compared with 39% of native-headed houses with children. Illegal immigrants generally access welfare programs through their U.S.-born children, to whom government assistance is guaranteed. Additionally, U.S.-born children of illegal aliens are entitled to American public schools, health care, and more, even though illegal-alien households rarely pay taxes. The short-term cost of “anchor babies” was revealed a decade ago in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. “‘Anchor babies’ born to illegal aliens instantly qualify as citizens for welfare benefits and have caused enormous rises in Medicaid costs and stipends under Supplemental Security Income and Disability Income,” wrote medical attorney Madeleine Pelner Cosman. In 2003 in Stockton, California, 70% of the 2,300 babies born in San Joaquin General Hospital’s maternity ward were anchor babies, and 45% of Stockton children under age six are Latino (up from 30% in 1993). In 1994, 74,987 anchor babies in California hospital maternity units cost $215 million and constituted 36% of all Medi-Cal [California’s Medicaid program] births. By 2005, they accounted for substantially more than half. Measures such as the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which requires hospital emergency departments to treat all patients with an “emergency” (an infinitely malleable term), regardless of documentation or ability to pay, have facilitated the abuse of American health care by illegal aliens. U.S.-born children of illegal aliens can sponsor the immigration of family members once they come of age. At 18, an “anchor baby” can sponsor an overseas spouse and unmarried children of his own; at 21, he can sponsor parents and siblings. There may be a long waiting period before that legal benefit is of use. But it’s a fact that illegal aliens with American-born children are much less likely to be deported, and that policy has been effectively enshrined in law with Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) policy, which would effectively grant amnesty to some 5 million illegal aliens, on top of the 2 to 3 million granted amnesty under his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. (DAPA is currently under scrutiny in the courts.) But “anchor babies” are a largely preventable phenomenon, mainly by simply enforcing current immigration laws. Stopping illegal immigration at the border, and instituting an actually effective visa-tracking system to crack down on overstays, would do much to discourage efforts to take advantage of American largesse.

Jewish pervert, Jared Fogle, had something for minors, but it wasn't money: Turns out his foundation to help battle childhood obesity did little but raise the Subway pitchman's profile

According to tax records, the Jared Fogle Healthy Lifestyle Nationwide School Grant Program spent an average of just $73,000 annually between 2009 and 2013 and never issued a grant. This despite Fogle's promise to give schools and community organizations $2 million to battle the condition that plagued him for years. "My goal is to help children avoid the physical and emotional hardships I went through living with obesity," he said at the time. Seems 60% of the non-profit's budget went to executive director Russell Taylor, 43 (now jailed on child pornography charges), and 26% went who knows where. What's more, records show that his organization hadn't paid a $5 yearly registration fee to the State of Indiana since 2008, when the non-profit was slated to begin operations. In fact, Indiana dissolved the Jared Fogle Healthy Lifestyle Nationwide School Grant Program three years ago, although it's still recognized by the IRS. "As with a lot of celebrities, the charity appears to be more about image-enhancement than charitable deeds," says a charity analyst. Fogle, who has pleaded guilty to child porn charges, was outed by an ex-journalist who secretly recorded him for years.

A new study clearly establishes a partial genetic basis underlying racial differences in slow-wave sleep

Using a panel of 1,698 ancestry informative genetic markers, the study found that greater African genetic ancestry was associated with lower amounts of slow-wave sleep in African-American adults. African ancestry explained 11% of the variation in slow-wave sleep after adjustment for potential confounders. "Our data are the first to show that race differences in slow-wave sleep may have an independent and significant genetic basis," said senior author Martica Hall, professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. Led by Hall and lead author Indrani Halder, the research team analyzed data from a community-based sample of 70 African-American adults and 101 European Americans with a mean age of about 60 years. Objective sleep data were gathered by polysomnography. Blood samples for genotyping were collected, and DNA was isolated following standard protocols. African-Americans have varying proportions of genetic admixture and exhibit a wide range of African genetic ancestry. Among African-American study participants, percentage of African ancestry ranged between 10% and 88%, with a mean of 67%.

According to Human Freedom Index, produced annually by the Cato Institute and Canada’s Fraser Institute, the freest nations in the world are, in order: Hong Kong, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Sweden

Northern Europe is now the most free region of the world, edging out North America.

Endometrial cancer is becoming more common in the United States and black women appear more likely to get the most aggressive types of tumors and die from the disease, a new study suggests

Researchers analyzed cancer registry data from 2000 to 2011 and found incidence rates for endometrial tumors increased among all racial and ethnic groups. But for white women, the increase was less than one percent overall, compared with 1.8% for Hispanic women and 2.5% for black and Asian women. Survival odds were also bleaker for black women. Researchers compared them to white women similar in age, tumor type and stage of cancer at diagnosis. After five years, the black women were 6% less likely to survive low-grade tumors and 59% less likely to survive more aggressive malignancies. There may be differences in tumor biology that make the disease more aggressive in black women. At least some of the increase in these tumors may be due to rising rates of obesity, the researchers note. Excess fat tissue produces more hormones such as insulin and estrogen, which may help cancer cells grow. Black women were more prone to aggressive tumors, the study found. When researchers looked at some of the more fast-growing and serious types of endometrial cancers, black women were 1.9 times to 2.5 times more likely to get these malignancies than white women. Hispanic and Asian women, in contrast, were less likely than white women to have aggressive subtypes of endometrial cancer.

Jewish sex criminals: Jared Fogle, the former Subway spokesman, has pleaded guilty to charges of distributing and receiving pornography, and having sex with minors

As part of his plea deal, Fogle, who is Jewish, will serve between five and 12-and-a-half years in federal prison. He will also pay 14 victims $100,000 each as part of the agreement. Fogle traveled to New York and had sex with at least two minors, ages 16 and 17, between 2010 and 2013. He also solicited acquaintances — from child victims to adult prostitutes — to put him in contact with other minors so he could have sex with them. In addition, he received child pornography from Russell Taylor, who served as executive director of his charity, The Jared Foundation. Taylor was arrested in April 2015 on preliminary child pornography charges, and Fogle’s home was searched by police in July 2015. Subway suspended its relationship with Fogle following the search. Fogle became Subway’s spokesperson in 2000, after dropping nearly 250 pounds on a regimen of eating two Subway sandwiches a day.

Nelson Mandela’s grandson has appeared in court charged with raping a 15-year-old girl at a bar, in the latest scandal to hit the family of the anti-apartheid leader

Mbuso Mandela, 24, remains in police custody and will appear at the Johannesburg magistrates court for a bail hearing. Police insist that he will not be treated differently from any other suspect. The girl was followed to a toilet where she was raped in a cubicle on the night of August 7, 2015. Mbuso was arrested after the victim, who is receiving counselling, opened a case against him. Mandela died in December 2013 at the age of 95, leaving behind a dynasty – including 17 grandchildren – that has had more than its share of emotional scars, infighting and controversy. Mandla Mandela, the eldest of the grandsons, was convicted earlier in 2015 of assaulting a 40-year-old motorist during a road-rage incident. In 2013 Mandla lost a court battle against other family members over the final resting place of his grandfather’s three children, which saw their bones dug up and reburied. Zoleka Mandela, a granddaughter, has told how she suffered sexual abuse as a child, became addicted to alcohol, drugs and sex, tried to kill herself, lost a daughter and son, and was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2013 two of Mandela’s daughters went to court to dispute control of the millions contained in one of his family trusts, but eventually dropped the action. Mbuso is descended from the first of Mandela’s three wives, Evelyn Mase, and received $300,000 in his grandfather’s will.

College-educated blacks and Hispanics have seen their wealth and income shrivel over the past 20 years

What's more, these folks have not only fared worse than white and Asian graduates, but also blacks and Hispanics without four-year college degrees, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The median income of blacks and Hispanics who finished college declined between 1992 and 2013, while for whites and Asians, median income grew by double-digit percentages, respectively. For example, black graduates earned $52,150 in 2013, a drop from $59,300 in 1992. Many high-paying fields, such as technology, are dominated by whites and Asians. Also, many white and Asians obtain advanced degrees, which allow them to command even higher salaries. Surprisingly, blacks and Hispanics without degrees saw their incomes climb 17.3% and 15.6%, respectively, while degree holders suffered. When it comes to median wealth, which includes the value of assets like homes and savings, degree-holding blacks and Hispanics also suffered losses, while whites and Asians saw big gains over the past two decades.

Attending a church may be better for one's mental health than engaging in sports, furthering one's education, or volunteering

So say researchers at the London School of Economics and Erasmus MC, who studied the effects of these four types of activities on the mental health of 9,000 Europeans aged 50 and older. They also found that some activities, like joining a community organization like a political group, appear to result in less happiness in the long run. "The church appears to play a very important social role in keeping depression at bay and also as a coping mechanism during periods of illness in later life," says epidemiologist Dr Mauricio Avendano, who notes religious activities were the only type to contribute to sustained happiness.

A new report from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) finds that the number of black males who are applying to medical school has not increased since 1978

In 1978, 1,410 black males applied to U.S. medical schools. In 2014, the figure was 1,337. In 1978, 542 black men matriculated at U.S. medical schools, compared to 515 in 2014. In 2014, women were 62.2% of all African Americans who applied to medical school. In every other major racial or ethnic group, men were a majority of all applicants. Nearly 42% of all black male medical school graduates have debt greater than $200,000. A 2006 report from the AAMC found that only 26% of practicing black male physicians said that their personal finances were in excellent or very good shape. This compares to 33% of black women physicians and more than half of all white physicians.

A disgraced rabbi forced to step down from a string of posts after he was caught intimidating and vilifying victims of child sexual abuse is now teaching Jewish Studies at an orthodox ladies college

Meir Shlomo Kluwgant was forced to resign as Australia’s top rabbi amid a humiliating scandal in the wake of the child abuse royal commission’s probe into Yeshivah College. But in a move that has outraged victims of abuse Rabbi Kluwgant is now teaching religious studies at Beth Rivkah Ladies College — operated by the Yeshivah Center who has backed the move. He has been teaching at the school for several months on a volunteer basis, but is remunerated by the Yeshivah Center for performing other duties. The move has outraged victims of child sexual abuse who say that it is evidence the center is not serious about tackling the scourge of abuse.

The wife of a Safed rabbi charged with sex crimes said that she knew about his sex acts with two women

Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg’s wife told Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Safed, that she knew her husband had sex with two women. Sheinberg, 46, has been charged in Nazareth District Court, on 13 counts of rape, indecent assault, sexual harassment, fraud and obstructing an investigation. His wife said that her husband only told her about two women; 13 have come forward to accuse him. The women had come to the rabbi with religious questions.

A new analysis of monthly Census Bureau data by the Center for Immigration Studies shows that the nation's immigrant population (legal and illegal) hit a record high of 42.1 million in the second quarter of 2015 — an increase of 1.7 million since the same quarter of 2014

Growth in the immigrant population in the last year was led by a 740,000 increase in the number of Mexican immigrants. The nation's immigrant (foreign-born) population, which includes legal and illegal immigrants, grew by 4.1 million from the second quarter of 2011 to the second quarter of 2015. Immigrants are 13.3% of the nation's total population — the largest share in 105 years. Growth in the last year was led by a rebound in the number of Mexican immigrants, which increased by 740,000 from 2014 to 2015 — accounting for 44% of the increase in the total immigrant population in the last year. The total Mexican immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached 12.1 million in the second quarter of 2015 — the highest quarterly total ever. In addition to Mexico, growth in the immigrant population was led by a 449,000 increase in the last year from countries in Latin America other than Mexico. The Department of Homeland Security and other researchers have estimated that eight in 10 illegal immigrants are from Mexico and Latin America, so the increase in immigrants from these countries is an indication that illegal immigration has begun growing again.

The total number of whites younger than 20 declined in 46 of the 50 states between 2000 and 2014

Nineteen states saw their white youth population decline from 2000-2014 by at least 100,000 (led by California, New York and Pennsylvania). Among the 50 states, only Utah (at 66,909) saw a significant increase in its population of young whites over that period; the other states that recorded gains (Idaho, South Carolina, and North Carolina) posted minimal advances of 10,791 or less. In sharp contrast, the number of kids of color increased in 48 of the 50 states from 2000 to 2014. Twenty-three states added at least 100,000 minority kids over that period (led by Texas, California and Florida). Only Mississippi and Louisiana, the states most battered by Hurricane Katrina, saw a decline in their population of people of color younger than 20. In all, the number of kids of color added in 30 states exceeded the number of white kids added in any state (Utah). In individual states, the two trend lines often rocketed in opposite directions. Over this period, Texas lost 236,736 whites younger than 20 - and added 1,553,182 non-whites in that age group. Florida lost 269,319 young whites, and added 740,675 young people of color. In California the replacement was nearly one-to-one: the state lost 929,927 whites younger than 20 and added 914,502 non-whites. Even in the Rustbelt, Pennsylvania lost 456,798 young whites and added 244,902 young non-whites. Overall, from 2000 to 2014, the nation added 8.2 million non-white kids younger than 20 - and lost nearly 6.6 million whites in that age group.

Immigration helps explain Sweden's educational problems

Sweden’s education performance has faltered in the past decades, with scores tumbling in the OECD’s international Pisa survey since the early 2000s. It turns out that the change in pupil demographics due to immigration explains almost a third of the average decline between 2000 and 2012: 19% in mathematical literacy, 28% in reading literacy, and 41% in scientific literacy. The effect is especially pronounced in recent years, coinciding with accelerating refugee immigration. Indeed, between 2009 and 2012, 43% of the average Pisa score decline is explained by altered demographics: a full 29% in mathematical literacy, 45% in reading literacy, and 62% in scientific literacy. About 11% of the overall decline can be attributed directly to the decreasing share of pupils with a Swedish background, while 18% can be attributed to the fact that results among pupils with an immigrant background have fallen more significantly. While scores among pupils with a Swedish background have declined by 22 points between 2000 and 2012, scores among pupils with an immigrant background have fallen by 39 points – and the performance gap between the two groups has grown from 36 points to 53 points.

African immigrant violence in Sweden: Police have revealed that the two suspects accused of killing a mother and a son at an Ikea store in Västerås, north west of Stockholm, came from Eritrea

Police have confirmed that they had arrested two people over the violence and said that both were from Eritrea. Officers said that the youngest suspect, 23, had already been questioned but added that a second 35-year-old man linked to the attacks remained in hospital with life-threatening injuries. The suspects knew one another and were living at the same accommodation complex for asylum seekers, they added. Meanwhile police said that the shoppers who were stabbed to death at the Ikea store in the central Swedish town of Västerås were a mother and son, aged 55 and 28.

The world's population will increase from today's 7.3 billion people to 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion at century's end, experts in demographic forecasting have predicted

The UN projection suggests there will not be an end to world population growth this century unless there are unprecedented fertility declines in those parts of sub-Saharan Africa that are still experiencing rapid population growth. The UN estimated the probability that world population growth will end within this century to be 23%. The primary driver of global population growth is a projected increase in the population of Africa. The continent's current population of 1.2 billion people is expected to rise to between 3.4 billion and 5.6 billion people by the end of this century. The continent's population growth is due to persistent high levels of fertility and the recent slowdown in the rate of fertility decline. The total fertility rate (TFR) has been declining in Africa over the past decade, but has been doing so at roughly one-quarter of the rate at which it declined in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1970s. In some African countries, the TFR decline appears to have stalled. For instance, in Nigeria - the continent's most-populous country - the high fertility rate would result in a more than fourfold projected increase in total population by 2100 - from 182 million to 752 million people. Although there is considerable uncertainty about these future trends, there is a 90% chance that Nigeria's population will exceed 439 million people in 2100, which is nearly 2.5 times its current size.

A federal judge has ruled that a new licensing exam for teachers given by New York State did not discriminate against minorities, saying that even though they tended to score poorly, the test evaluated skills necessary to do the job

The ruling is a departure from earlier decisions by the same judge, Kimba M. Wood of Federal District Court in Manhattan, in which she threw out past certification exams. It also symbolizes a significant moment in a long-running tug of war between two policy goals in education: making tests for new teachers more rigorous, and increasing the diversity of the nation’s teaching force. The exam, the Academic Literacy Skills Test, often called the ALST, was first given in the 2013-14 school year, and is meant to assess a potential teacher’s reading and evidence-based writing skills, and ability to master the Common Core standards for English. In New York, the exam is one of four tests new teachers must take to become certified. Ken Wagner, a former New York State deputy commissioner of education who is now Rhode Island’s education commissioner, said in a court brief that the new tests were developed “with the need to address the achievement gap in mind and in recognition of the state’s responsibility to ensure that each newly certified teacher entered the classroom with certain minimum knowledge, skills and abilities.” But some schools of education in New York complained that the literacy skills test was not a true measure of what makes a good teacher, and that many of their black and Hispanic students were failing it. An analysis found that 46% of Hispanic candidates and 41% of black candidates passed the test on the first try, while 64% of white candidates did so. Students may retake the exams. More than 80% of the country’s public schoolteachers are white, according to the federal Education Department, and there has been a longstanding push to try to increase diversity among teachers, as minorities now account for more than half of the public school student population. If an employment test has a disparate racial impact, courts have ruled that officials must prove that it measures skills crucial to the job at hand. Judge Wood had ruled that two earlier exams, both called the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test, had not met that standard. About 4,000 people who at some point were denied full teaching jobs in New York City because they had not passed those tests have filed claims seeking compensation as a result of those rulings. But this time, Judge Wood ruled that the state and Pearson, the testing company that helped devise the exam, had done a proper job of making sure that the “content of the ALST is representative of the content of a New York State public-school teacher’s job.” In a statement, Dennis Tompkins, a spokesman for the State Education Department, said: “Judge Wood’s decision reflects the efforts made by the department to demonstrate the validity of the ALST. Our students need and deserve the best qualified teachers possible, and the ALST helps make sure they get those teachers.” Even so, following complaints from schools of education, the state granted teacher candidates a reprieve, saying that until June 30, 2016, they could get their licenses without passing the exam if they could demonstrate literacy skills through course work.

Pakistani officials have initiated an investigation into allegations that a gang of men sexually abused more than 200 children and sold videos of the abuse

The accusations have rocked the country, drawing the attention and condemnation of human rights activists and politicians in a case that involved subjects long considered taboo here. At least 280 children under the age of 14 from three villages in eastern Punjab Province were said to have been subjected to sexual abuse by a gang of 15 men, who made videos to extort money from the children and their parents. Seven of the accused have been arrested, police officials said. The accusations of abuse started trickling out as victims began to report it to the police, and recently, hundreds of residents staged a protest, accusing the police and local politicians of protecting the gang members and ignoring the accusations. Some of the protesters clashed with the police, and dozens of people were injured, including several police officers. The gang members had drugged and intoxicated their victims, some as young as 6, and had recorded hundreds of videos. Some of the children stole jewelry and money from their parents to pay the men to stop them from making the videos public. Many of the videos were sold to buyers and pornographic websites overseas. The coverage prompted an outpouring of outrage on social media, especially on Twitter. Pedophilia remains a taboo subject in Pakistani society. Human rights activists say that child abuse is rampant in the country and that homeless children, as many as 1.5 million according to some estimates, are particularly vulnerable. Most of the victims and gang members are from Hussain Khan Wala, a dusty farming village in the Kasur District of Punjab Province, near the border with India and about an hour’s drive from Lahore, the provincial capital.

Assailants believed to be Islamist militants entered an apartment building posing as potential tenants and killed a secular blogger in Bangladesh's capital, in the fourth such deadly attack in 2015, police said

Police official Mustafizur Rahman said that 40-year-old Niloy Chowdhury was hacked to death in his apartment. The motive was not immediately clear and no one claimed responsibility for the death. Chowdhury's friends said that he was a secular blogger and had a Facebook account with the name "Niloy Neel" in which he criticized radical Islamists at home and abroad. The killing is the fourth of a secular blogger since February 2015, when a Bangladeshi-American man who was also critical of Islam, Avijit Roy, was hacked to death on the Dhaka University campus while walking with his wife. Two others were attacked and killed in March and May 2015, one in Dhaka and another in the northeastern city of Sylhet. Detectives say that radical groups were behind the previous attacks and have made some arrests, but have failed to make any major headway into the killings.

Genetic adaptation keeps Ethiopians heart-healthy despite high altitudes

Ethiopians have lived at high altitudes for thousands of years, providing a natural experiment for studying human adaptations to low oxygen, a condition known as hypoxia. One factor that may enable Ethiopians to tolerate high altitudes and hypoxia is the endothelin receptor type B (EDNRB) gene. Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine now find that mice with lower-than-normal levels of EDNRB protein are remarkably tolerant to hypoxia. The study provides a mechanism for the gene's role in adaptation to life at high altitudes and suggests that EDNRB could be targeted to treat sea level diseases that stem from lack of oxygen. "This is the first demonstration that a gene involved in high altitude adaptation is critical in protecting cardiac function in moderate to severe hypoxia at sea level," said senior author Gabriel Haddad, MD, Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine and physician-in-chief and chief scientific officer at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego. "In addition to improving the health of the more than 140 million people living above 8,000 feet, information on how Ethiopians have adapted to high altitude life might help us develop new and better therapies for low oxygen-related diseases at sea level - heart attack and stroke, for example." Whole-genome sequencing previously identified EDNRB as a candidate gene for high altitude tolerance in Ethiopians. To investigate further, Haddad and his team turned to a mouse model that produces low levels of the protein. The researchers found that even under extremely hypoxic conditions - 5% oxygen, even lower than you'd find atop Mount Everest - low-EDNRB mice performed much better than normal mice. Under these conditions, normal mice experienced a 40%-50% drop in cardiac output, which meant they were unable to maintain their blood pressure and none of them survived to finish the minimum exposure time. In contrast, mice with low EDNRB maintained normal heart rhythm and blood pressure in severe hypoxia. Low-EDNRB mice in hypoxia were also better able to maintain oxygen delivery to vital organs and keep blood lactate levels low. "Lowering EDNRB does wonders for mice when environmental oxygen levels are low, leading us to conclude that the EDNRB gene plays a key role in human adaptation to low oxygen and high altitude," said Haddad, who is also a pediatric pulmonologist at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego.

People often mimic each other's facial expressions or postures without even knowing it, but new research shows that they also mimic the size of each other's pupils, which can lead to increased trust

The findings reveal that participants who mimicked the dilated pupils of a partner were more likely to trust that partner in an investment game, but only when the partner was part of the same ethnic group. According to the researchers, these findings suggest that group membership plays an important role in how we interpret pupil signals. In this study, participants were more likely to trust partners with dilated pupils when they belonged to the same group (in this case Western European descent) than when they didn't belong to the same group (for example Asian descent). "The results of the current study further confirm the important role for the human eye in what people love and fear," the researchers write. "More specifically, pupil mimicry is useful in social interactions in which extending trust and detecting untrustworthiness in others go hand in hand, and it benefits in-group interactions, survival, and prosperity."

In the northern Mexican state of Durango, rapes are not reported because 70% of them are committed by close family members such as fathers, brothers and uncles

For many Mexicans, rape is just a normal part of everyday life.

In 2014 alone, immigration authorities released into American communities 193 illegal immigrants with homicide convictions, 426 people with sexual-assault convictions and 16,000 with drunk-driving convictions

Altogether, 104,000 people who by law should have been deported were instead allowed to remain on American soil. The director of the agency in charge of the removals offered as a partial excuse that immigration courts faced a backlog of 500,000 cases.

Athletes competing in the upcoming Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will be swimming and boating in waters so contaminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games, an investigation has found

An analysis of water quality has revealed dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage in Olympic and Paralympic venues — results that alarmed international experts and dismayed competitors training in Rio, some of whom have already fallen ill with fevers, vomiting, and diarrhea. It is the first independent comprehensive testing for both viruses and bacteria at the Olympic sites. Brazilian officials have assured that the water will be safe for the Olympic athletes. But the government does not test for viruses. Disease-causing viruses in some tests measured up to 1.7 million times what would be considered hazardous on a Southern California beach. Prime beaches are deserted because the surf is thick with putrid sludge, and periodic die-offs leave the Olympic lake, Rodrigo de Freitas, littered with rotting fish. The viral testing found not one water venue safe for swimming or boating. Rodrigo de Freitas Lake was thought be safe, yet its waters were among the most polluted for Olympic sites, with results ranging from 14 million adenoviruses per liter on the low end to 1.7 billion per liter at the high end. Austria's sailing coach has lost training days after sailors fall ill despite extreme precautions. "The Olympic medal is something that you live your life for," he says, "and it can really happen that just a few days before you get ill and you're not able to perform at all." A US expert in waterborne viruses conducted a "conservative" risk assessment, assuming that athletes would ingest three teaspoons of water — far less than athletes say they take in. She found "an infection risk of 99%." Nearly 1,400 of the expected 10,000 Olympic athletes participate in water sports. In 75% of the samples at the Olympic lake, fecal coliforms exceeded Brazil's legal limit for "secondary contact" — in two samples spiking to over 10 times the accepted level. Brazil promised to build eight treatment facilities to filter much of the sewage and household trash. Only one has been built. "Brazilian authorities promised the moon in order to win their Olympic bid and as usual they're not making good on those promises," says a biologist. Rio Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezao has acknowledged "there's not going to be time" to finish the cleanup of the bay.

A Mexican man living in the United States illegally had been stopped by Ohio authorities and released weeks before a crime spree in which he's suspected that left one woman dead, officials said

Juan Emmanuel Razo-Ramirez, 35, is accused of attempting to rape a 14-year-old girl, shooting a woman in the arm, killing another woman in her home, then getting in a shootout with police in Lake County, Ohio. Razo-Ramirez had been stopped on July 7, 2015 by Lake County sheriff’s officials. They released him after speaking with federal immigration officials. “As far as I can tell, and from what I heard him admit, he says he’s undocumented — he’s not legally in the United States,” Lake County Prosecuting Atty. Charles Coulson said in an interview. Painesville Municipal Judge Mike Cicconetti appeared furious at the arraignment. “He’s here illegally? And they didn’t take him? ... I can’t set a bond high enough.” He set bond at $10 million. Razo-Ramirez pleaded not guilty to attempted murder. More charges are expected to be filed. The Department of Homeland Security said that it would pursue deportation after the trial, and after Razo-Ramirez serves any sentence that may be imposed. The case comes almost four weeks after the fatal shooting of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco. The man charged in that case, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, 52, is an immigrant in the country illegally, and a seven-time felon who has been deported to his native Mexico five times. He was shielded from another deportation by San Francisco’s status as a “sanctuary city.”

Santa Cruz County District Attorney Jeff Rosell has filed charges against a 15-year-old Hispanic who is accused of committing a shocking crime

Adrian Jerry Gonzalez lured 8-year-old Madyson Jordan Middleton into his Santa Cruz apartment, raped and killed her, and put her body in a box, investigators said. Rosell has announced that he charged the 15-year-old Latino as an adult. The boy faces life in prison if convicted. "He is charged with one count of murder, (with) special circumstances involving sexual offenses, lying in wait, and kidnapping," Rosell said. "We are going to bring him to justice. He is looking at life in prison." According to Police Chief Kevin Vogel, Gonzalez lured Madyson into his apartment. The young girl trusted the boy enough to follow him because he was her neighbor at the Tannery Arts Center on River Street, Vogel said. Gonzalez raped the girl using force and death threats before he killed her, according to a criminal complaint.

The 31-year-old black man who shot and killed a white woman in Hollywood over an apparent financial dispute has been charged with capital murder

Ezeoma Chigozie Obioha entered a not guilty plea at the downtown L.A. criminal courthouse. He was ordered held without bail. Obioha was arrested and booked on suspicion of murder in the death of 30-year-old Carrie Jean Melvin. In addition to capital murder, he faces special circumstances allegations of lying in wait and murder for financial gain, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Strangely, white people are not rioting in Los Angeles and shouting "White Lives Matter" over this murder. It is almost as if white people are more civilized than blacks. Apparently, Obioha is a Nigerian immigrant.

Using the data from Facebook, a computer model could predict a person’s race with 95% accuracy and gender with 93%

The model also accurately predicted sexual, religious and political orientation; intelligence; the likelihood of substance abuse; and personality.

The brains of more intelligent people are capable of solving tasks more efficiently, which is why these people have superior cognitive faculties, or as Elsbeth Stern, Professor for Research on Learning and Instruction at ETH Zurich, puts it: "when a more and a less intelligent person are given the same task, the more intelligent person requires less cortical activation to solve the task"

Scientists refer to this as the neural efficiency hypothesis, although it ceased being a hypothesis quite some time ago and is now accepted by experts as an undisputed fact, with ample evidence to support it. While working on her doctoral thesis in Stern's work group, Daniela Nussbaumer also found evidence of this effect for the first time in a group of people possessing above-average intelligence for tasks involving what is referred to as working memory. "We measured the electrical activity in the brains of university students, enabling us to identify differences in brain activity between people with slightly above-average and considerably above-average IQs," explained Nussbaumer.

The tendency of more intelligent people to live longer has been shown, for the first time, to be mainly down to their genes by new research

By analysing data from twins, researchers found that 95% of the link between intelligence and lifespan is genetic. They found that, within twin pairs, the brighter twin tends to live longer than the less bright twin and this was much more pronounced in fraternal (non identical) twins than in identical twins. Studies that compare genetically identical twins with fraternal twins - who only share half of their twin's DNA - help distinguish the effects of genes from the effects of shared environmental factors such as housing, schooling and childhood nutrition. Rosalind Arden, a research associate at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), said: "We know that children who score higher in IQ-type tests are prone to living longer. Also, people at the top of an employment hierarchy, such as senior civil servants, tend to be long-lived. But, in both cases, we have not understood why. Our research shows that the link between intelligence and longer life is mostly genetic. So, to the extent that being smarter plays a role in doing a top job, the association between top jobs and longer lifespans is more a result of genes than having a big desk. However, it's important to emphasize that the association between intelligence and lifespan is small. So you can't, for example, deduce your child's likely lifespan from how he or she does in their exams this summer." The researchers looked at three different twin studies from Sweden, the United States and Denmark where both intelligence and age of death was recorded, and where at least one twin in each pair had died. Only twins of the same sex were included in the analysis. On the reasons for the findings, Rosalind Arden said: "It could be that people whose genes make them brighter also have genes for a healthy body. Or intelligence and lifespan may both be sensitive to overall mutations, with people with fewer genetic mutations being more intelligent and living longer. We need to continue to test these ideas to understand what processes are in play." This is the first study to test for a genetic association between intelligence and lifespan.

The search for 43 missing college students in the southern state of Guerrero has turned up at least 60 clandestine graves and 129 bodies over the last 10 months, Mexico's attorney general's office says

None of the remains has been connected to the youths who disappeared after a clash with police in the Mexican city of Iguala on September 26, 2014 and authorities do not believe any will be. Prosecutors say that the students were turned over to a drug gang that killed them and incinerated their bodies in a case that has put attention on the huge number of people who have gone missing in Guerrero and other Mexican states where drug violence is widespread. The number of bodies and graves found from October 2014 to May 2015 could possibly be higher than in its report, the attorney general's office said, because its response to a freedom of information request covers only those instances in which its mass grave specialists got involved. Federal authorities began turning up unmarked graves after beginning an investigation into the disappearance of the 43 young men following the confrontation between students and police that resulted in six confirmed deaths in Iguala, a municipality of 120,000 people 200 kilometers (160 miles) south of Mexico City. More than 20,000 people are listed as missing across Mexico, and there are many "disappeared" in Guerrero, a state that is a major opium producer and the battleground among several cartels warring over territory and drug smuggling routes. The government has said that there is no evidence the 43 students were involved in the drug trade, but says that they were mistaken for a rival gang. Many people are questioning the government's version of what happened to the students, including parents and the National Human Rights Commission, which has issued a report outlining at least 30 omissions in the investigation that would help determine the youths' fate. Some were very basic investigation procedures that were never performed. Of the 129 remains found in the graves, 92 were men, 20 women and the rest are undetermined, according to the information released by the attorney general's office. Authorities listed only 16 of the remains as identified as of July 13, 2015.

Blue collar white voters believe that the Republican Party is better equipped to make the economic system more fair by an overwhelming margin, according to a new Washington Post poll

In the survey of non-college educated whites, 50% had more faith in GOP policies, while 29% favored the Democratic strategy. These are among the workers hit hardest by the economic shifts of the past quarter century, and in particular by the failed polices of the Obama administration. They’ve seen good paying jobs in Appalachian coal mines become casualties of Obama’s war on coal. They’ve lost solid, middle class work on the oil rigs of the Gulf because Obama is more obsessed with tomorrow’s temperatures than today’s families. And they’ve bid goodbye to Midwestern factory jobs while Obama saddles employers with oppressive taxes and regulations. Mitt Romney, the failed GOP standard bearer in 2012, bemoaned the prospects for selling a message of smaller government when 47% of the population is receiving some form of government assistance. But many of these blue collar whites are among the 47%. They may be getting Obamacare subsidies, or unemployment benefits, or even food stamps. And that’s not what they want. They’re looking for the opportunity to take care of themselves and their families. They want jobs, not another Big Government giveaway designed to replace the paychecks Democratic policies have killed. They’ve lost faith — if they ever had any — in the government’s ability to solve their problems. And who can blame them? Handouts never create opportunity, only dependency. Blue collar workers aren’t hardwired to want handouts; it demeans their humanity and self-sufficiency. And it should be added that blue collar workers comprise 61% of the U.S. working population. It should also be added that Democrats’ incessant demeaning of blue collar workers because of their race (predominantly white), religion, gender (predominantly male), or values isn’t helping a whole lot, either. If you keep suggesting that white, male, Christians who believe in earning a dollar are racist, ignorant, xenophobic, homophobic or otherwise evil, they probably won’t vote for you.

Jon Stewart told black writer to f-off

I guess the Jewish comedian felt that Wyatt Cenac was being uppity or something.

Crime and black children: The youngest convicted murderer in the United States will soon walk free from prison for the first time since he was 12 years old

Curtis Fairchild Jones and his sister Catherine admitted to killing their father's girlfriend, Sonya Nicole Speights, in 1999, when they were just 12 and 13 years old respectively. Though it was initially believed that they killed her over jealousy of their father's love, it was later revealed that the siblings planned to kill their father and a male relative living with them in their Port St John, Florida, home, whom they claimed was sexually abusing them. When they realized that their cries for help were not being answered, they organized the plan to kill all three.

Hispanics are seven times more likely to give birth between the ages of 10 and 14 than whites, according to a Centers for Disease Control study

Ann Coulter looks at the high rate of child rape among Hispanics.

A new New York Times/CBS News poll reveals that nearly six in 10 Americans, including heavy majorities of both whites and blacks, think race relations are generally bad and that nearly four in 10 think the situation is getting worse

By comparison, two-thirds of Americans surveyed shortly after President Obama took office said they believed that race relations were generally good. In other words, Obama has made the situation worse.

Many of the same genes may affect GCSE results across a broad range of subjects according to a new study from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London

The research also suggests that educational achievement at GCSE is highly heritable, with over half of the difference between results potentially due to inherited differences in DNA. Previous studies have shown that academic achievement in the core subjects of English, mathematics and science at GCSE may be influenced by the same genetic traits. However, it was previously unclear if these genetic factors have an influence on a wider range of academic subjects. The researchers analysed genetic data from 12,500 twins to investigate if genetic factors could influence GCSE results. They found that academic achievement in English, mathematics, science, humanities, second languages, business informatics and art was affected by the same genes. This shared genetic influence was found even when genetic effects due to general intelligence were removed. All GCSE results were highly heritable, demonstrating that genes explain a larger proportion of the differences between children (54%-65%) than shared environmental factors, such as home and school environment combined (14%-21%). The study's first author, Kaili Rimfeld from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, said: "Our findings suggest that many of the same genes influence achievement across a broad range of disciplines, moving beyond core subjects such as English and maths to include humanities, business, art and languages. For the first time, we found that these general genetic effects on academic achievement remained even when the effects of general intelligence were removed. We also found that over half of the differences between children's educational achievement for all of these disciplines was explained by inherited differences in their DNA, rather than school, family and other environmental influences. The standardized curriculum used here in the UK could be one explanation for this strong genetic influence because all children have access to the same education and take the same standardized exams, thus the environmental differences are reduced." Professor Robert Plomin, last author from the IoPPN at King's College London, said: "Understanding the specific genetic and environmental factors influencing individual differences in educational achievement - and the complex interplay between them - could help educationalists develop effective personalized learning programs, to help every child reach their potential by the end of compulsory education."

A prominent rabbi in northern Israel has been sentenced to nine years in prison for committing sexual offenses against four minors, including by claiming that he was acting under God’s instructions

Rabbi Yaakov Deutsch of the city of Afula was also ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of shekels in compensation to his victims, the Nazareth District Court ruled, in a sentence handed down three years after charges were first pressed against him. “Given [the rabbi’s] importance in the eyes of the victims, the extent of their trauma can only be imagined, falling prey to the defendant’s heinous and humiliating acts,” judge Tawfic Kteily stated in his verdict. “The trust the complainants had in the defendant was breached,” he added. “The damage is evident in all aspects of their lives, and could carry over late into their lives.” According to the verdict, Deutsch, an important local figure in the lower Galilee city with a large following, abused his position to assault two boys and two girls, all minors. The charges include unlawful sexual intercourse, sodomy and indecent assault against a 15-year-old girl, to whom he promised that his acts were being carried out under “divine instruction,” and that they would “heal her.” He further told the victim that she was his wife in a previous life. “He destroyed my daughter,” the girl’s weeping father said outside the courtroom. “The rabbi hurt her and caused her immense mental harm. I raised her for 14 years and he took her from me.” Deutsch met another one of his victims, a 14-year-old boy, during a visit to a graves of a Jewish sage, and invited him to his home, where he assaulted him. The case was first revealed in 2011, when Deutsch was detained by police.

An elderly Indian woman accused of practising witchcraft has been stripped naked and beheaded by villagers in the state of Assam, police say

They said that 63-year-old Purni Orang had been blamed for illness in the tribal settlement. Seven people, including two women, have been arrested over her killing. Police in Assam say that nearly 90 people, mostly women, have been beheaded, burnt alive or stabbed to death after such accusations over the last six years. Branding women as witches is particularly prevalent among tribal communities and tea plantation workers in the state. People in a village in Sonitpur district were falling sick, and some of them "blamed Purni Orang for their condition", local police official Samad Hussain said. "After that they branded her a witch and killed her," Hussain said. In October 2014, an Indian athlete Debjani Bora was severely beaten after being branded a witch in Assam.

Black people are significantly more likely to experience sudden cardiac arrests than white people

Researchers have found that blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to experience sudden cardiac arrest, with 175 black men and 90 black women per 100,000 experiencing sudden cardiac arrest compared with 84 white men and 40 white women per 100,000. At the time of sudden cardiac arrest, the majority of black people were younger than 65 while the majority of white people were older than 65. On average, black people were more than 6 years younger than white people when experiencing sudden cardiac arrest. Blacks also had higher rates of chronic kidney failure, diabetes, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure and left ventricular hypertrophy than did white people.

African American men are more likely to develop prostate cancer than European American men, and are also more than twice as likely to die from it

Although there are many reasons that contribute to this health disparity, new research shows that African American men may have a distinctly different type of prostate cancer than European American men, according to new genomic fingerprinting results. "This study, this line of research, is about finding better and more appropriate therapies for African American men," says corresponding author of the study, Kosj Yamoah, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Resident in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University. "The first step is to figure out how prostate cancer is different and more aggressive at the genomic level." Dr. Yamoah and colleagues have identified a subset of genes known as biomarkers that define a genomic subtype of prostate cancer that is more common in African American men, and which signals a more aggressive disease. The researchers scanned the literature for genes that were functionally associated with prostate cancer initiation and progression and found 20 genes. These 20 included prostate cancer markers and genes involved in hormone receptor function and cell metabolism. Dr. Yamoah and colleagues then examined the clinical records of prostate cancer patients to find a pool of 154 African American and 243 European American men whose prostate cancer characteristics were matched using a validated scoring system known as CAPRA-S, indicating very similar disease at the outset. (The CAPRA-S predicts disease severity and risk of recurrence after surgical removal of the prostate and is based on a number of measures including the grade of tumor, number of lymph nodes containing signs of cancer, whether the cancer has spread into supportive structures of the prostate, PSA score, and other measures.) The researchers then analyzed samples from these patients to find out which of the 20 validated genes - some of which initiate and some which drive cancer - were expressed in high or low quantities in the two populations of men. They found a subtype that the researchers coined "triple negative prostate cancer," defined as the absence or low levels of three genes called ERG, ETS, and SPINK1. African American men with high CAPRA-S scores and more advanced Gleason grade disease at diagnosis were more likely to be triple negative when compared to European American men with a similar disease scores at diagnosis. The researchers also found other genes that were expressed at different levels in African American versus European American men, including genes involved in cell metabolism and the androgen receptor pathway. Further studies are already underway to validate the significance of this trend. Despite being the largest study to date on African American prostate cancer biomarkers, the numbers of African American patients studied was still relatively small. "Much of what we understand in terms of the genetics of prostate cancer to date has been based on clinical trials in Caucasian men," says Dr. Yamoah. "However, the data here suggest that a subset of African American men may have a type of prostate cancer that arises from molecular pathways that are distinctly different from those of European American men. This, and our previous work in this area, shows that some African American men with prostate cancer might have a better shot at survival if they are treated with a different approach than standard of care." The next steps, says Dr. Yamoah are to "refine the biomarkers that will capture these differences and develop approaches that help reduce the disparities in outcomes that we see."

Of America’s 25 most racially segregated metropolitan areas, just five are in the South; Northern cities — Detroit, Milwaukee and New York — top the list

Many of the racial injustices that liberals associate with the South are actually worse in the North. Housing segregation between black and white residents, for instance, is most pervasive above the Mason-Dixon line. Segregation in Northern metro areas has declined a bit since 1990, but an analysis of 2010 census data found that Detroit’s level of segregation, for instance, is nearly twice as high as Charleston’s.

Muslim gunman from Kuwait kills unarmed US marines in Tennessee

His name is Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez.

Alzheimer's disease may affect the brain differently in African-Americans than white Americans of European descent, scientists have said

Researchers who conducted the study in the United States said that their findings have important clinical implications as they may suggest a need for different types of Alzheimer's prevention and treatment in African-Americans. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia and sees proteins build up in the brain to form structures called plaques and tangles. Scientists looked for these plaques and tangles in the brains of people who had died as well as other brain changes that can cause dementia, such as infarcts (tissue death), which are associated with stroke, and Lewy bodies (tiny deposits of protein in nerve cells), which is also seen in Parkinson's disease. They found that only about half of the European-Americans had pure Alzheimer's disease pathology, while the rest also had either infarcts or Lewy bodies in their brains. In contrast, fewer than 25% of the African Americans had pure Alzheimer's disease pathology and three-quarters (71%) of the African-Americans had Alzheimer's disease pathology mixed with another type of pathology. Study author Lisa Barnes, associate professor and cognitive neuropsychologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, said: "Because some studies suggest that Alzheimer's disease is more common among older African-Americans than European-Americans, we wanted to see whether the brain changes caused by Alzheimer's are different in these two racial groups. Our study has important clinical implications because it may suggest a need for different types of Alzheimer's prevention and treatments in African-Americans. Indeed, current Alzheimer's drugs primarily target specific Alzheimer pathologies in the brain. Given the mixed pattern of disease that we see in African-American brains, it will be important to develop new treatments that target these other common pathologies, particularly for African-Americans." Dr Doug Brown, director of research at Alzheimer's Society, said that most of the 850,000 people with dementia in Britain have Alzheimer's disease. "This new study shows that most people with Alzheimer's disease also have signs of other forms of dementia, and this is more common in black people than white," he added. "Through research we are learning more about the complexities of what happens in the brain and this finding reinforces that we cannot view Alzheimer's disease in isolation – all forms of dementia desperately need new treatments. This study also demonstrates the need to get as many people from all ethnic backgrounds involved in research. To make this possible, Alzheimer's Society has helped to launch Join Dementia Research, an online service to make taking part in research easier, which has already signed up over 8,000 volunteers around the country."

Obama's America: Black children were almost four times as likely as white children to be living in poverty in 2013, a new report has found, the latest evidence that the economic recovery is leaving behind some of the United States’ most vulnerable citizens

The poverty rate has remained stable for black children, while it fell for Hispanic, white and Asian children, a sign of just how pervasive and stubborn poverty has been for African-Americans, according to the report. About 38.3% of black children lived in poverty in 2013, nearly four times the rate for white children, at 10.7%. About 30.4% of Hispanic children and 10.1% of Asian children live in poverty. For the first time since the federal government started collecting the data, the number of black children in poverty appears to have overtaken the number of poor white children, even though white children far outnumber black children in the American population, the report said. About 4.2 million black children were living in poverty in 2013, compared with 4.1 million white children, though researchers said the difference was not statistically significant. In actual numbers, there were still more Hispanic children in poverty, 5.4 million, than any other group, researchers said, a ranking the group has held since at least 2008. The Hispanic population is larger and younger than any other racial or ethnic group, and the child poverty rate is relatively high. Researchers did not investigate the reasons black children were lagging. One possible driver was the unemployment rate, which has been consistently higher for African-Americans than for most other racial and ethnic groups, and which took longer to fall after the recession, Eileen Patten, a research analyst who tracks social trends at the Pew Research Center, said.

Neocons are out to take down Donald Trump

See what the Zionists at Instapundit are freaking out about. I guess Trump does not have the Sheldon Adelson stamp of approval.

An Indian couple and four of their children were hacked to death by a mob of villagers who accused them of practicing witchcraft and making their children sick, according to police in the eastern state of Odisha

The victims were asleep in their mud house in the hamlet of Lahanda in Keonjhar district, when a group of around five people armed with axes broke in. The suspects, believed to be relatives of the family, accused the victims of being behind for a spate of frequent illnesses among infants in the village, said police. District Superintendent of Police Kavita Jalan said that two surviving children alerted authorities. The police reached the village to find the mutilated bodies in pools of blood, an ax abandoned inside the hut, and a young boy still alive. "The eight-year-old boy was found by police gasping between the dead bodies," Jalan said, adding that a search was being conducted to find the suspects, who had fled the village after the incident. The practice of branding men and women as witches and assaulting or killing them remains common is some parts of India, particularly among tribal communities, despite there being a law against it. There were 160 cases of murders linked to witch hunts in 2013, and 119 in 2012, data from the National Crime Records Bureau shows. In a separate incident, police have recovered the remains of a man who was beaten to death and burnt by a mob over allegations of sorcery in Rayagada district, also in Odisha state. Charity workers say that as well as trying to disabuse some tribes of superstitious beliefs, the government needs to focus on education and economic development. India's tribes make up more than 8% of its 1.2 billion population. Yet many live on the margins of society - inhabiting remote villages and eking out a living from farming, cattle rearing and collecting and selling forest produce. Social indicators in these communities, including literacy, child malnutrition and maternal mortality, are among the lowest in the country. Neglect by the authorities and a Maoist insurgency in the country’s central tribal belt have further exacerbated their plight. "People believe in superstition because they do not have health care. They are uneducated. Unless we provide them these basic facilities, the situation will not improve," said Debendra Sutar, secretary of the Odisha Rationalist Society, a charity.

A typical Briton has 193,000 living cousins – if everyone from first cousin through to sixth cousins are included

When you think about it an ethnic group is just a very large, extended family.

Homicide is the leading cause of death among young black men in America

And many more will be claimed by heart disease, respiratory infections, and complications related to HIV, all of which black men are both more likely to acquire and to be killed by than either black women or whites in the USA. Of the 1.1 million people living with HIV in the United States, more than 506,000 are black. Though the black community makes up 12% of the national population, it suffers 44% of new infections, 49% of AIDS diagnoses, and nearly half of HIV-related deaths. “One in three black gay men will contract HIV,” says Alex Garner of the National Minority AIDS Council. “Compare that to the one in six white gay men who will become infected,” Garner continues.

Blacks, HIV and Washington DC: Despite the fact that blacks and males are both minorities in DC, 73% of residents living with HIV are male, and three-quarters are black

Among females living with HIV, 92% are black. The World Health Organization (WHO) categorizes groups with HIV prevalence higher than 1% as reaching an epidemic level. Black residents with HIV are almost four times the 1% epidemic threshold; Hispanics are at 1.6% and whites are at 1.2%. Black men who have sex with men and black men engaging in injection drug use represent 26% – the largest group of HIV cases in DC; black heterosexual females represent the second largest group.

Mexican illegal immigrant crime: Authorities have located a missing 13-year-old Florida girl and arrested the man she was found with

The Van Buren County Sheriff's Office was contacted by Polk County, Florida authorities about the girl. Her name is not being released. She was thought to be with Aurelio Hernandez-Gomez. Polk County authorities had received information that the two might be in a Hartford Township residence. Deputies went to the home with Covert Township and Pokagon Tribal police. They found the girl and Hernandez-Gomez upon arrival. During the investigation it was discovered that he had sexually assaulted the 13-year-old. Deputies also reported that Hernandez-Gomez told them he entered the United States illegally and had come from Chiapas, Mexico. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was contacted. The suspect has been jailed Thursday and arraigned in a Van Buren County courtroom on one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. Bond was set at $150,000. He is expected back in court on July 15, 2015. He also faces felony charges out of Polk County for felony kidnapping and interference with child custody. He is expected to be extradited back to Florida at some point. Michigan Children's Protective Services took custody of the girl and is arranging to return her to her family in Florida. If you have any additional information about this incident, please contact the Van Buren County Sheriff's Office, at 269-657-3101.

The number of murders in 2015 has jumped by 33% or more in Baltimore, New Orleans and St. Louis

After years of declining violent crime, several major American cities experienced a dramatic surge in homicides during the first half of 2015. Not surprisingly, the increased violence is disproportionately impacting poor and predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods. And yet blacks and liberals would rather complain about confederate flags.

A Hispanic illegal immigrant has been charged with sexually groping two 17-year-old girls on the Fourth of July in a Michigan's Adventure wave pool

Eliazar Rivas-Rodriguez, 29, of Middlebury, Indiana, has been arraigned on two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct involving force or coercion. The arraignment was conducted through a Spanish-speaking interpreter, according to court records. Muskegon County Chief 60th District Judge Maria Ladas Hoopes set his bond at $80,000 cash or surety and scheduled a probable-cause hearing for July 21, 2015. The crime is a high-court misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of two years in state prison. According to an affidavit for warrantless arrest in Rivas-Rodriguez's court file, he's accused of sexually groping the girls – who didn't know him – on July 4, 2015 while they were in a wave pool at Michigan's Adventure amusement park in Fruitland Township. One of the teens reported the stranger grabbed her in the crotch area once. The other said that he did it three times in succession, then grabbed her by the ankle under the water when she tried to flee. The girl was able to get away and reported the incident to the teens' guardians, according to the affidavit. It was then reported to a lifeguard, then to park security guards. They kept the Latino suspect in sight until a Michigan State Police trooper arrived to investigate. Rivas-Rodriguez, interviewed through an interpreter, denied all the allegations, according to the affidavit. The affidavit described the suspect as an illegal immigrant living for 10 years in the Goshen, Indiana, area. At the end of the court process, whether it results in conviction or not, the Muskegon County Prosecutor's Office typically will notify the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service that an illegal immigrant has been charged with a crime, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Timothy M. Maat said. Typically, an illegal immigrant if convicted of the charged crime would serve his sentence, if any, then face deportation to his home country, Maat said.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego and the School of Medicine have found that the three-dimensional shape of the cerebral cortex - the wrinkled outer layer of the brain controlling many functions of thinking and sensation - strongly correlates with ancestral background

The study opens the door to more precise studies of brain anatomy going forward and could eventually lead to more personalized medicine approaches for diagnosing and treating brain diseases. "If we can account for a large percentage of brain structure based on an individual's genes, we're in a better position to detect smaller variations in the brain that might be important in understanding disease or developmental issues," said the study's senior author Anders Dale, PhD, professor of radiology, neurosciences, psychiatry and cognitive science, and director of the Center for Translational Imaging and Precision Medicine at UC San Diego. In their study, the researchers found that they could predict with "a relatively high degree of accuracy an individual's genetic ancestry based on the geometry of their cerebral cortex." They found no relationship between brain shape and functional or cognitive abilities, Dale said, but rather a trove of information about how minute differences in brain geometry could be correlated with genetic lineage. "The geometry of the brain's cortical surface contains rich information about ancestry," said the study's first author, Chun Chieh Fan, MD, a graduate student in cognitive science. "Even in the modern contemporary U.S. population, with its melting pot of different cultures, it was still possible to correlate brain cortex structure to ancestral background." Four continental populations were used as ancestral references: European, West African, East Asian and Native American. The metrics for summarizing genetic ancestry in each ancestral component were standardized as proportions ranging from 0% to 100%. "We looked to see how well we could predict how much genetic ancestry they had from Africa, Europe and so forth," said study co-author Terry Jernigan, PhD, professor of cognitive science, psychiatry and radiology, adding that cortex differences between various lineages were focused in certain areas. "There were various systematic differences, particularly in the folding and gyrification patterns of the cortex," said Jernigan, also director of the university's Center for Human Development. "Those patterns were quite strongly reflective of genetic ancestry." The researchers reported that the cortical patterns accounted for 47% to 66% of the variation among individuals in their genetic ancestry, depending on the ancestral lineage.

Democratic political operative murdered by black assailant on Washington Metro

Hat tip, Occidental Dissent.

Black child criminals: Jarrell Milton, a fugitive wanted on murder charges after a gang and drug-related shooting in Omaha has been arrested, marking the latest development in a case that might not have been widely reported if not for the fact that Jarrell Milton is 12 years old

Officials say that the black boy was arrested in Minneapolis and is now in the custody of the US Marshals Service. Police say that Jarrell, his 17-year-old brother Jamar, and 15-year-old Shuntayvious Primes-Willis shot two men, killing one, after setting up a meeting for a marijuana deal in a city park. The older two boys have been charged as adults with first-degree murder. Prosecutors say that all three of them had weapons and they plan to try the 12-year-old as an adult as well, though it's not completely clear whether the law will allow them to. "It's incomprehensible," a prosecutor said. "It's unbelievable when you think of somebody who's 12 years old, seventh grade or sixth grade, and being charged with murder for having a gun — approaching somebody and using that firearm with two other people that also had firearms. It's even impossible to imagine that it's even a possibility."

A black voodoo priest in South Florida has been charged with sexual battery after raping an 11-year-old girl while claiming it was to “cleanse evil spirits”

Police in the city of Sunrise have revealed at a press conference that Brogenet Cinor convinced a girl, who is now 16, and her mother that he had healing powers back in 2009. Cinor told the girl and her mother that he could feel evil spirits coming from the girl during a spiritual consultation. He then took her into a tiki-style backyard shed and had sex with her, police say. After the incident, the girl told her mom, who confronted Cinor. However, the voodoo man threatened to curse the woman if she went to authorities. “He was using the victims’ belief in voodoo and curses,” Sunrise police Officer Cindi McCue said. “They believed they could die if they didn’t follow his instructions.” It was only years later, after the girl told her father about what happened during the “voodoo consultation,” that police learned of the assault. This isn’t the only time Cinor, who’s been practicing as a voodoo priest in the area for at least a decade, has used fear to coerce women into sex, police say. Two years ago, two separate women told police that they had sex with Cinor after he told them they needed a spiritual cleansing. One of the women, who said that Cinor told her she would die if she didn’t have sex with him, became pregnant. She said that Cinor later gave her $500 to get an abortion. Prosecutors did not pursue charges in either case. In the case of the young girl, Cinor has been arrested and charged with sexual battery on a child less than 12 years of age. He was released the following day on $75,000 bond.

Academics at the University of York have discovered a correlation between genetic and linguistic diversity and concluded that at least in Europe people who speak different languages are also more likely to have a different genetic make-up

The study, led by Professor Giuseppe Longobardi in York's Department of Language and Linguistic Science, in collaboration with geneticists and linguists at the Universities of Ferrara and Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, has discovered that language proves a better predictor of genetic differences than the geographical distribution of population. As part of his study he observed significant correlations between genetic and linguistic diversity across the Indo-European and non-Indo-European-speaking populations of Europe. Professor Longobardi said: "To a very large extent linguistic differences correspond to genetic differences in the relevant populations. So, if a population speaks French and another speaks Russian they have a certain degree of linguistic diversity, that we can now measure with unprecedented precision and the degree of genetic diversity is proportional. Is it the case that the French and Italians and Spanish, who speak very close languages, are really similar to each other in genetic terms? Is it really the case the Japanese, and say a population from Sub Saharan Africa, are really very different both in terms of language and in terms of their genetic ancestry? To some extent our answer, based on the published study and further work in progress, is yes: at least as a general historical rule." However, Professor Longobardi said that there are exceptions, as to many rules, and the exception in Europe is the Hungarians, who are genetically very similar to Slavic and Germanic populations. "That's one case where some populations of central Europe just picked up a new language which was brought in to Hungary by a small group of conquerors. But apart from that exception the distribution of languages and the distribution of the genetic structure of the populations in Europe tend to correspond to each other," he added. The study suggests that migrating populations carried their genes alongside their language, rather than just a cultural diffusion of linguistic features from one population to another. The project involved studying around 15 European languages but researchers are turning their attention to other languages, extending potentially to a global scale. The research could eventually help scientists pinpoint when and how Indo-European languages were brought into Europe and potentially help geneticists in the future. Professor Longobardi added: "Ultimately being able to identify the ancestry of a population just on the simple basis of the language they speak may benefit identifying genetic properties of these populations, which could ultimately be of practical use even for medical research."

New Zealand: An illegal immigrant from Fiji who tied up an elderly woman with her own bed sheet and beat her until she lost consciousness will spend more than seven years behind bars

Dinesh Lal, 43, appeared for sentencing at the High Court at Auckland, charged with kidnapping, indecent assault, and aggravated robbery. He was found guilty of all three charges at an earlier trial at the same court but has continued to protest his innocence. Crown prosecutor Glyn Hughes described Lal's offending as "violent and opportunistic" with Lal's own lawyer, Glenn Dixon, saying that despite his client maintaining his "complete innocence...what you have is the targeting of a vulnerable lady at home for a specific purpose". According to the summary of facts, on January 8 2014, Lal armed himself with a knife and disguised himself with a mask before confronting the 76-year-old victim at her home as she opened her back door in the middle of the day. Justice Edwin Wylie said that he dragged the victim to her bedroom where he bound the woman with bed sheets before punching her three times, ripping jewellery from her body and indecently assaulting her. After she lost consciousness he threw her on the ground and "paid no further attention to her" as he rifled through the rest of her house. He stole a further $200 from her drawers and made off with her jewelry. The victim, who has name suppression, submitted through a victim impact statement to the court that she still felt fearful whenever she went outside and had ongoing pain from the attack. "She remains scared and fearful, worries every time she goes outside that she will be attacked again and no longer feels safe in her own home," Justice Wylie said. He described the offending as "humiliating and degrading" for the victim who would have been "terrified". According to a probation report, Lal had an "excellent" upbringing in Fiji and had gone on to marry and have two daughters before moving to New Zealand with his family in 2008. He began working as a boat-builder but his work visa expired in 2013 and had been living and working in the country illegally since then. Justice Wylie indicated that he would be deported after finishing his sentence. There were no mitigating factors to Lal's offending, Justice Wylie said, noting in particular that he had effectively gone on the run after police attempted to interview him about the crime. He had offered to pay no reparations because of his perceived innocence. Justice Wylie sentenced Lal to seven years, six months imprisonment and ordered no minimum period should be served.

Documents: Bill Cosby testified during a 2005 court case that he obtained Quualudes to drug women he sexually desired, and admitted to giving one woman and "other people" the sedative

Cosby was testifying in a lawsuit filed by former Temple University Andrea Constand when he admitted to drugging her with three half-pills of the drug Benadryl. Cosby settled with her for an undisclosed sum. Cosby's lawyer had fought against the release of these documents, saying that they would be "terribly embarrassing" for the comedian. "Frankly ... it would embarrass him, (and) it would also prejudice him in eyes of the jury pool in Massachusetts," his lawyer said, referring to a defamation lawsuit filed by three women against Cosby. More than two dozen women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, with many saying that he sedated them with drugs before raping them, but no criminal charges have been filed (the statues of limitations bars most of them). The 77-year-old comedian, who stepped down from Temple's board of trustees in December 2014, hasn't yet responded to the latest documents.

Police are hunting a group of black men behind an anti-white attack on Staten Island

Seven black men called a 28-year-old man “white bread” and other insults as they threatened him. The group then chased after the white victim, punching and kicking him. They struck him with a milk crate, a fluorescent light bulb, a bottle and other garbage they picked up, officials said. The victim managed to escape his attackers, suffering only minor wounds. The NYPD’s hate crimes task force is investigating. Images of two suspects were caught on surveillance video. Police are offering $2,500 reward for information on the attack. Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

The Igbo: The Jews of West Africa?

Peter Frost has an interesting article on an African ethnic group that most Americans may not know about.

Mexican arrested in connection with San Francisco killing had been deported several times, officials say

The Mexican arrested in connection with the seemingly random killing of a woman who was out for a stroll with her father along the San Francisco waterfront is an illegal immigrant who previously had been deported five times, federal immigration officials say. Further, Immigration and Customs Enforcement says that San Francisco had him in their custody earlier in 2015 but failed to notify ICE when he was released. "DHS records indicate ICE lodged an immigration detainer on the subject at that time, requesting notification prior to his release so ICE officers could make arrangements to take custody. The detainer was not honored," ICE said in a statement. Kathryn Steinle was killed at Pier 14 - one of the busiest tourist destinations in the city. Police said that they arrested Francisco Sanchez in the shooting an hour after it occurred. ICE has revealed that their records indicate the individual has been previously deported five times, most recently in 2009, and is from Mexico.

Black teacher fired for verbally and physically abusing disabled white children

Hat tip, Occidental Dissent.

Crime and the black family: A young boy was beaten almost to death for taking — or, as family members put it, "stealing" — a piece of birthday cake without permission, police say

Prosecutors say that the 9-year-old was handcuffed and severely beaten by his mother's boyfriend, 30-year-old Robert Leroy Wilson, and is not expected to survive. According to police, another adult in the home called 911 after the boy was beaten unconscious but when paramedics arrived, the boy's mother told them that he was just "congested." She didn't let them see the boy, but they were called back hours later when he stopped breathing. The boy was hospitalized in critical condition with head trauma and pulmonary contusions, according to charging documents, and was found to have bruises and contusions on his face, ears, neck, spinal column, abdomen, and buttocks. Some of these were in "varying stages of healing," the documents state, which indicates past abuse. He has not regained consciousness and prosecutors say that he will have permanent injuries if he survives. Wilson faces charges including first-degree assault and child abuse and bail was set at $1 million after a hearing.

American public opinion on the Confederate flag remains about where it was 15 years ago, with most describing the flag as a symbol of Southern pride more than one of racism, according to a new CNN/ORC poll

The poll shows that 57% of Americans see the flag more as a symbol of Southern pride than as a symbol of racism, about the same as in 2000 when 59% said that they viewed it as a symbol of pride. Among African-Americans, 72% see the Confederate flag as a symbol of racism, just 25% of whites agree. In the South, the racial divide is even broader. While 75% of Southern whites describe the flag as a symbol of pride and 18% call it a symbol of racism, those figures are almost exactly reversed among Southern African-Americans, with just 11% seeing it as a sign of pride and 75% viewing it as a symbol of racism. Among whites with a college degree, 51% say that it's a symbol of pride, 41% a symbol of racism. Among those whites who do not have a college degree, 73% say that it's a sign of Southern pride, 18% racism. Most oppose redesigning state flags that feature Confederate emblems or symbols to remove references to the Confederacy (57% oppose that), renaming streets and highways named after Confederate leaders (68% oppose that) and removing tributes to those who fought for the Confederacy from public places (71% oppose that). Among African-Americans, most favor removing flags from government property (73%), private companies stopping the sale or manufacture of products featuring the flag (65%) and redesigning state flags that feature Confederate references to remove them (59%).

An illegal alien from Mexico charged in the death of his estranged girlfriend entered a guilty plea in a Franklin County court in Alabama

The plea ends more than two years of uncertainty for a family who dreaded sitting through an upcoming trial. Escorted by jailers, Angel Nava entered the courthouse after weeks of negotiations between prosecutors and defense attorneys. District Attorney Joey Rushing said that it was the family of Lesley Hope Plott who asked for some resolution in the case. “Out of all the murders I have handled here, this one as far as the evidence and the gruesomeness of it is the worst,” Rushing said. In February 2013, prosecutors said that surveillance cameras recorded the murder which took place along north Jackson Avenue. Investigators in the case said that Nava punched, stabbed and cut Lesley Plott to death. The two had been in a relationship for more than 10 years, but were estranged at the time of the murder. According to investigators, Plott was giving Nava a ride home at the time of the attack. “We talked with the victim’s family, and we discussed all the options and the potential for what could happen if we went to trial,” Rushing explained. “They decided that murder and a life sentence would be an offer they would be satisfied with.” Before his departure from court, Nava was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Rushing said that they will strongly oppose Nava’s parole if the day ever comes. If Angel Nava is ever released from prison on parole, he will immediately be deported from the United States back to his native Mexico. Nava and Lesley Plott had one child together who is now in the custody of her surviving family members.

Muslims in Africa: Boko Haram, newly affiliated with the Islamic State, has recently unleashed a series of gruesome terror attacks in Nigeria

In the latest, gunmen burst into mosques and homes in the town of Kukawa and killed 97 people who were praying or otherwise marking the holy month of Ramadan, say government officials. The previous night, gunmen in the village of Mussaram ordered males and females to separate and then opened fire on the men and boys, killing about 50 and seriously injuring another 17. “They spared nobody," one witness to the slaughter in Kukawa said. "In fact, while some of the terrorists waited and set most of the corpses on fire, others proceeded to houses and shot indiscriminately at women who were preparing food." Boko Haram has made a point of going after mosques because it considers their Islamic teaching to be insufficiently strict.

A black man has been arrested after he left racist messages outside a church

Vincent Broughton, 44, who is black, is facing charges for committed a bias-motivated crime and disorderly conduct. The signs were posted outside the New Covenant church that is predominately attended by African Americans. One sign references the KKK. Another reads, “Black men beware, you are the target.” The messages had the congregation on edge. “We locked our doors this morning, so we were inside, but it shouldn’t be that way. You shouldn’t have to lock your doors in the church, it’s just… I’m speechless,” said Pastor Roland Joyner. Broughton has admitted to posting the flyers but did not explain why he targeted the church.

Having ancestors that are too closely related may negatively influence an individual's height and thinking skills, a genetic study has shown

The effect of inheriting pairs of identical genes means children of first cousins are likely to be 1.2 centimeters (0.5 inches) shorter than those whose DNA is more mixed, scientists found. It was also predicted to have a significant impact on mental ability and educational attainment, as well as lung function. But surprisingly, factors such as blood pressure and cholesterol that influence the risk of heart disease, diabetes and other conditions were not affected by genetic diversity. The findings, based on genetic data of more than 300,000 individuals from around the world, suggest that natural selection is driving people to become cleverer and taller. In contrast, risk factors for complex diseases that occur late in life do not appear to be major players in the human evolutionary story.

Among Puerto Rican 8th graders tested in mathematics in 2013, 95% scored Below Basic, 5% scored Basic, and (to the limits of rounding) 0% scored Proficient, and 0% scored Advanced

In contrast, among American public school students poor enough to be eligible for subsidized school lunches, only 39% scored Below Basic, 41% scored Basic, 17% scored Proficient, and 3% scored Advanced. Puerto Rico’s test scores are just shamefully low, suggesting that Puerto Rican schools are completely dropping the ball. By way of contrast, in the United States, among black 8th graders, 38% score Basic, 13% score Proficient, and 2% score Advanced. In the United States, among Hispanic 8th graders, 41% reach Basic, 18% Proficient, and 3% Advanced.

Computer algorithm thinks that blacks look like gorillas

Google is in trouble because its Photo app has a tendency to label pictures of blacks as "gorillas" which has upset many on the left.

Twitter only has 49 black employees - out of 2,910 staff members in the United States of America

The 35 black men and 14 black women account for just 1.7% of its US operation, which is 93.8% white (Jewish?) or Asian. It represents a stark lack of progress since last year, when senior executives promised to boost their number of African American staff from 2%. Twitter has just 68 Hispanic employees and three Native Americans. Recently, Google revealed that black people account for just 2% of its workforce. Facebook has also come under fire for its minuscule proportion of black employees (2%) - and for hiring just seven black people since its last diversity count.

White violence against blacks is dwarfed by black on white violence

In 2012, blacks committed 560,600 acts of violence against whites (excluding homicide), and whites committed 99,403 acts of violence (excluding homicide) against blacks, according to data from the National Crime Victimization Survey. Blacks, in other words, committed 85% of the non-homicide interracial crimes of violence between blacks and whites, even though they are less than 13% of the population. Both the absolute number of incidents and the rate of black-on-white violence are therefore magnitudes higher than white-on-black violence. The black homicide-victimization rate is six times higher than the white homicide-victimization rate. It is not whites who are responsible for that homicide death gap; it’s other blacks. Blacks commit homicide at close to eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined; among males between the ages of 14 and 17, the interracial homicide commission gap is nearly tenfold.