Race an increasing factor in gang slayings in Los Angeles County

Even as gang-related homicides have been dropping in the last several years, the proportion of such killings in which race was a factor has increased, according to Los Angeles County sheriff's officials. Sheriff's homicide investigators reported that race "played a role" in 16% of the 207 gang-related killings in 2005, rising to 19% of 133 gang slayings last year, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore. In the first six months of 2008, 25% of the 56 gang-related slayings involved either blacks killing Latinos or vice versa. That compares with 13% for the same period last year. Whitmore said officials examined all gang-related homicides over the last three years, in jurisdictions where the department investigates those crimes, to determine what role, if any, racial hatred played. Whitmore said it is as much an element in the slayings as such other factors as gang clashes, drugs and turf. Whitmore said the numbers appeared to back Sheriff Lee Baca's argument for a broader discussion about the role race plays in gang killings. "Critics have said race is a major factor in the violence in county and state prisons, and is a problem on school campuses. But they say, 'Baca was wrong to say those factors are at play with gangs on the streets,' " Whitmore said. "The numbers lend credibility to the argument that the racial component be examined along with other factors, including drugs, territory and money, in these crimes."

Diversity fails working-class Britons

White teenagers are less likely to go to university than school-leavers from other ethnic groups - even with the same A-level results, according to official figures. The gap is widest among male teenagers from poor backgrounds, raising fresh fears that working class boys are becoming the education "underclass" in England. According to a Government report, just over one-in-20 white boys from poor homes goes on to university. This compares to 66% of Indian girls and 65% of young women from Chinese families. An analysis published by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said the rise in the number of women going to university over the last 10 or 20 years "had made the performance of males look relatively dismal". The report said many working class white boys dropped out of education at the earliest opportunity, aged 16. Young white men from poor homes were eight and a half times less likely to go to university than ethnic minority women from middle-class families. Among some ethnic groups, university participation rates were even higher. Overall, 58% of men from Indian backgrounds and 66% of women go on to university. Among Chinese families, 60% of boys and 65% of women go to university. Black Caribbean boys were the only group less likely to go to university than white boys. The Conservatives said the disclosure proved that Labour was failing pupils from poor homes.

A man in Britain accused of conspiring to blow up passenger planes wanted to wage a global jihad

Mohammed Gulzar, 26, of Barking, east London, is one of eight men who deny devising the plot in 2006. But prosecutors told Woolwich Crown Court that a series of mid-air explosions were only part of Mr Gulzar's terrorist plans. Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, said his account of his actions while under surveillance was "entirely a fraud". The defendants in the case are accused of planning to make hydrogen peroxide bombs disguised as soft drinks which would then be detonated on at least seven planes flying out of London's Heathrow airport.

Immigration officers in Sierra Leone have started a manhunt for illegal immigrants living in the country

Chief immigration officer Alpha Kolifa Koroma said the illegal immigrants were committing crimes such as drug dealing and people trafficking. Several hundred have been arrested and four deported. It is believed there are tens of thousands of foreigners, mainly from Nigeria, living in Sierra Leone without records. The number of Nigerians has soared dramatically since the mid 1990s because of the presence of Nigerian peacekeepers in Sierra Leone. Nigeria led a West African force that intervened during Sierra Leone's brutal civil war. The Nigerian soldiers later joined the UN peace mission, which withdrew in 2005 - three years after the conflict officially ended. The news of the crackdown has prompted fear among the large Nigerian community - many fearing it may prompt xenophobic attacks.

Thousands of Somali refugees are still flowing into Kenya despite the formal closure of their shared border

Kenya closed the border to its northern neighbour in January 2007 to block fleeing fighters after Somali and Ethiopian government troops ousted Islamists who had ruled the capital Mogadishu and swathes of southern Somalia for six months. At least a million people have been uprooted by fighting between Somali-Ethiopian forces and Islamist insurgents since. "The border closure has not achieved what it was intended for. Last month, over 3,500 refugees came through the porous borders," Kenyan Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang said. Kajwang was speaking at the remote Dadaab camp in arid north Kenya during a visit by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, on World Refugee Day. The U.N. says 4,000 Somalis a month are crossing the long border, swelling Dadaab's total by 20,000 this year to 200,000.

Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe has been released from jail

Abu Qatada, the radical Islamic cleric described as Osama bin Laden’s “right-hand man in Europe”, has been released from jail after a judge ruled that there were no grounds to keep him in prison. The decision to allow him to return to his home in London – where he will receive around £1,000 per month in state benefits – made a mockery of the government’s promise to crack down on terror suspects, and embarrassed the Home Office, which had pledged to deport Qatada to Jordan to face terror charges. The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, said she was “extremely disappointed” at the court’s decision to bail Qatada, while the Conservatives branded the decision “offensive”.

Illegal immigrant crime in Washington

A wave of burglaries is spreading across the Washington area, and police say illegal immigrants are likely playing a key role. In the first five months of 2008, burglaries climbed 10% to 20% in many jurisdictions. The District of Columbia had the greatest increase, jumping 20% from 1,370 in the first five months of 2007 to 1,638 for the same period this year.

Hat tip, Brenda Walker!

New book on race and IQ

Professor J. Philippe Rushton reviews Richard Lynn’s new book The Global Bell Curve: Race, IQ and Inequality Worldwide.

The High Court in South Africa has ruled that Chinese South Africans are to be reclassified as black people

It made the order so that ethnic Chinese could benefit from affirmative action policies, aimed at improving living standards for black people. The Chinese Association of South Africa took the government to court, saying its members had been discriminated against. An estimated 200,000 ethnic Chinese live in South Africa.

E-Verify and immigration

Pat Buchanan explains why the most effective weapon against illegal immigration is E-Verify, an Internet-based system operated jointly by the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration.

Norway is going to need nearly 4,000 more police officers over the next decade, to keep up with population growth and a rising crime rate

Police Director Ingelin Killengreen was due to deliver a report on staffing needs to the Justice Ministry on Monday. In it, she notes that Norway's population is expected to grow not least through immigration, and that poses new challenges. There are now 460,000 immigrants living in Norway. The total number of immigrants in Norway is expected to rise to 1,050,000 by 2020. Since the police handle immigration cases on behalf of the immigration agency, more staffing will be needed. It also will be needed to tackle a rising crime rate. "We must be prepared to receive immigrants in a way that also will help prevent crime better than we manage today," Killengreen said.

Textbooks at a private Islamic school in Virginia teach students that it is permissible for Muslims to kill adulterers and converts from Islam

Other passages in the school's textbooks state that "the Jews conspired against Islam and its people" and that Muslims are permitted to take the lives and property of those deemed "polytheists." The passages were found in selected textbooks used during the 2007-08 school year by the Islamic Saudi Academy, which teaches 900 students in grades K-12 at two campuses in Alexandria and Fairfax and receives much of its funding from the Saudi government.

Report accuses social workers of ignoring family violence for fear of upsetting ethnic minorities in Britain

Political correctness is putting children's lives at risk as authorities turn a blind eye to domestic violence for fear of antagonising ethnic minority communities, says the NSPCC. The charity warns that Asian victims of domestic violence are being failed by those working in child protection because of 'cultural sensitivities'. The report finds that 'police, health, education and social services did not feel qualified to deal with Asian victims. This sometimes led them to take the wrong action or no action at all on the grounds of respecting Asian culture.' A 105-page report by the NSPCC says 750,000 children are affected by domestic violence in their homes - either as witnesses or victims. Social workers said they had come across examples where some violent Asians used their culture and religion to justify their abusive domestic violence. As Asian adults and children are brought up to believe the public image of the family is more important than individual safety, problems are kept secret, the report warns. 'Asian children and their mothers suffer the double injustice of a community that would rather save face than deal with domestic violence and a system that lacks cultural understanding so hides behind political correctness,' said Saleha Islam, the NSPCC's Asian helpline manager.

Black-on-black crime: Two men have been found guilty of murdering a 15-year-old boy who was shot dead as he slept at his home in south-east London

Michael Dosunmu was shot four times when gunmen burst into the family home in Peckham in February 2007. The Old Bailey heard that Michael was mistaken for his older brother who was to be killed in revenge for a murder. Mohammed Sannoh, 19, from Peckham, and Abdi Omar Noor, 22, from Camberwell, south-east London, had denied murder. They were remanded in custody for sentencing. Michael was asleep in the bedroom he shared with his brother Hakeem, when Sanoh and Noor burst in and fired a MAC-10 machine pistol. He was hit by four bullets - one of them piercing his heart and killing him.

The European Parliament is preparing to vote on a set of common EU rules that would allow the detention of illegal immigrants for up to 18 months

The return directive was agreed by EU interior ministers on 5 June and it is backed by conservative and liberal MEPs. Socialists, Greens and several human rights groups oppose the legislation. The length of time an immigrant can be held before expulsion varies greatly across the 27-nation European Union. In France the detention limit is 32 days, in Hungary it is a year, in Latvia it is 20 months and in seven countries there is no time limit. The new rules would not automatically apply in Denmark, Ireland and the UK because they have negotiated opt-outs.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has exposed torture and appalling levels of sexual violence in a conflict in western Kenya

It says people there are caught up in fighting which it claims is being ignored by the international community. A major military operation to neutralize a militia group called the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF) has left thousands of civilians trapped. The militia took up arms over a land allocation scheme it considers unfair. MSF says there are victims of "indiscriminate violence" on both sides. The SLDF says it is fighting for ancestral land in the fertile Mount Elgon region belonging to the Sabaot community, but has been accused of killing members of rival ethnic groups. Correspondents say much of the chaos witnessed in Kenya after the country's presidential election in December 2007 was sparked by long-running disputes over land.

The brains of gay men and women look like those found in heterosexual people of the opposite sex

The Swedish study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, compared the size of the brain's halves in 90 adults. Gay men and heterosexual women had halves of a similar size, while the right side was bigger in lesbian women and heterosexual men. A British scientist said this was evidence sexual orientation was set in the womb. Scientists have noticed for some time that homosexual people of both sexes have differences in certain cognitive abilities, suggesting there may be subtle differences in their brain structure. This is the first time, however, that scientists have used brain scanners to try to look for the source of those differences. A group of 90 healthy gay and heterosexual adults, men and women, were scanned by the Karolinska Institute scientists to measure the volume of both sides, or hemispheres, of their brain. When these results were collected, it was found that lesbians and heterosexual men shared a particular "asymmetry" in their hemisphere size, while heterosexual women and gay men had no difference between the size of the different halves of their brain. In other words, structurally, at least, the brains of gay men were more like heterosexual women, and gay women more like heterosexual men.

[Joe Walker's view: My take is that gay men have damaged Y-chromosomes while lesbians have damaged X-chromosomes which means that homosexuals are just defective versions of heterosexuals.]

Freedom of the press is on trial in Canada

Pat Buchanan writes about the trial involving Maclean's magazine, author Mark Steyn and the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal.

Spain will offer unemployed immigrant workers financial incentives to return to their countries of origin

A slowing economy has halted Spain's construction boom and building sites are laying off workers, including many from Latin America, North Africa and Eastern Europe. Labor and immigration minister Celestino Corbacho said workers who agree to return will be entitled to receive accumulated unemployment benefits in two lump sums, provided they take their families with them and commit not to return to Spain for at least three years. Corbacho estimated the incentives to be offered as of would affect 1 million workers and their families. Immigrants account for about 10% of Spain's population, up from nominal levels in the early 1990s.

Asian eateries are most prone to health violations in Sacramento County

In Chinese restaurants, roast duck meat may hang from a hook to dry for more than four hours, creating a tasty entree that inspectors consider a virtual petri dish for bacteria.

Race and the dynastic appeal of Barack Obama

Steve Sailer blogs about the value of having a simple definition of race.

Egypt has deported 400 Eritrean asylum seekers back to Asmara and plans to forcibly return 1,200 more who are being held in detention in Egypt

Egypt, already home to tens of thousands of African migrants, has seen a surge of Eritreans arrive in 2008, including Pentecostal Christians fleeing religious persecution and others trying to avoid military conscription, activists say. The surge comes as Egypt faces pressure to block the flow of mostly African migrants over its Sinai border into Israel. Egyptian police have shot dead at least 13 migrants at the Israel border in 2008 and detained scores more.

Radical Muslims in Britain have formed chat rooms to discuss adopting orphans and bringing up children to be Islamic fighters

Discussions on a number of radical websites have asked how children should be brought up to be "mujahideen" and whether they should be pulled out of mainstream schools. Other participants boast of how their children threaten to kill "kuffar" [non-believers]. The Centre for Social Cohesion says radical Muslims are using the Internet to create a "virtual Islamic caliphate" and calls on the government to launch a crack down. According to the Centre for Social Cohesion, a think tank which has been monitoring radical websites, users of a site called www.islambase.co.uk discussed the possibility of adopting children and bringing them up on May 3, 2008. The site, which is based at a post office box in Glasgow and protected by a password, is used by the followers of the radical preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed, who lived in North London until he fled to the Lebanon in 2005. "Hamza", one visitor to the site on 23 March 2008, wrote about a friend's account of what his nine-year-old son, Rashid, had told him he would say if his father was killed by the kuffar [non-believers]. He said the boy told him: "I don't care if you kill me cause I'm not afraid of you or to die for Allah, and I'll have a lot of wives in jennah [heaven] insha allah and I'll be with my dad in jennah too and we will have fun doing what we want there if Allah lets us. Don't kill my dad or you will be in trouble with me, I swear by Allah."

While only 6% of the state's population is black, about 28% of people living with HIV/AIDS in Massachusetts are non-Hispanic blacks

HIV/AIDS has largely slipped beneath the public's radar, but it continues to exact a heavy toll among African-Americans, say health authorities who are launching education and testing campaigns in five Massachusetts cities, including Lynn, where rates of new infections are among the state's highest. The North Shore's largest city has seen an influx of immigrants and refugees in recent years from many African countries, where infection rates among young adults can approach 40%. Education in some of their homelands about HIV/AIDS transmission and treatment is minimal. Lynn has the fifth highest rate of new HIV infections among African-Americans and other black residents, according to the state's latest data. Boston recorded the highest, followed by Springfield, Brockton, and Worcester. Especially troubling to public health authorities are numbers indicating that 36% of black immigrants and refugees in Massachusetts from sub-Saharan African and Caribbean Basin countries who test positive for the blood-borne virus are diagnosed with full-blown AIDS within two months, which means they've lived with - and likely transmitted - the virus for several years, said disease trackers.

An official from South Africa's ruling African National Congress has been stabbed in neck during a party meeting

Western Cape Provincial Secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha was reported to be in a stable condition in hospital after the attack in the Boland region. Police in Western Cape said a 30-year-old man had been arrested in connection with the incident.

Danish police have arrested a couple of Sudanese origin suspected of taking their two young daughters to Sudan to be circumcised

Female circumcision usually involves the partial removal of the woman's genitals. It is outlawed in Denmark but remains a widespread practice in Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia. Police said the girls, now aged nine and 11, were circumcised in 2003 during a trip to the east African nation. The 49-year-old husband and his 40-year-old wife were arrested after Danish social services alerted police to the fact that medical examinations showed the two girls had been circumcised. The couple, who deny all wrong-doing, were also accused of having planned to take their third daughter, aged five, to Sudan to be circumcised. A Danish judge remanded them in custody for eight days, pending further investigation. If found guilty, they could face up to six years in prison. Female circumcision can cause death through hemorrhaging and later complications during childbirth. It also carries risks of infection, urinary tract problems and mental trauma. Some 100 to 140 million girls and women around the world have undergone genital mutilation, including 6.5 million in Western countries, according to a study by the French National Institute for Demographic Research published last year.

A gene linked to IQ may also increase the chances of living to a ripe old age

Scientists found that people with the gene were not only brighter, but also more likely to live past the age of 85. The gene produces an enzyme, or biological catalyst, that "detoxifies" the brain by removing excess acid and destructive molecules called free-radicals. It also acts against a natural biochemical that dampens brain activity and causes drowsiness. The gene comes in two common forms - a "C" version and a "T" type that is 20% less efficient. Genes are normally in pairs. Previous research has shown that young people with two copies of the T gene perform less well in IQ tests than those with C genes. Because of what it does in the brain, scientists suspected that the gene might also affect aging.To investigate this, Italian researchers from the University of Calabria looked at the genes carried by 514 volunteers aged between 18 and 107. They also carried out a standard IQ test on 115 members of the group aged 65 to 85. As expected, those with two copies of the T gene performed significantly worse in the tests. The scientists then looked into the survival prospects of the participants. They found that people carrying two T genes were unlikely to live past the age of 85. Those with at least one C copy, on the other hand, had a chance of seeing their 100th birthday. Study leader Giuseppe Passarino stressed that even though having two T genes might make a person decline faster in old age, it was not an early death sentence.

ADHD and nomadism

Is attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder due to genes inherited from hunter-gatherers and pastoral nomads?

An alleged leader of a Mexican crime ring wanted on gang, drugs and weapons charges has been taken into custody

Jose Manuel Garibay Felix was arrested at a California Department of Motor Vehicle office in Riverside, FBI Special Agent in Charge Keith Slotter said. The 24-year-old is accused of leading "Los Garibay," a criminal organization suspected of trafficking drugs and committing kidnaps and murder in Mexico, according to an arrest warrant filed in U.S. District Court. A Mexican criminal complaint alleges that he directed the abduction and murder of a police officer in retaliation for his investigation of the Garibay organization. The suspect is being held in a Los Angeles detention center while awaiting extradition to Mexico.

A third of those killed in xenophobic attacks in South Africa in May 2008 were local citizens

Gangs of attackers mistook them for people from other parts of Africa. Twenty-one South Africans died in the riots. About 20,000 displaced people were still living in fields and halls. The violence, blamed on unemployment and scarce resources, was the worst since the end of apartheid in 1994. Non-governmental organisations estimate that about 85,000 people were uprooted in the violence - many thousands fled to their countries of origin.

Footage from a video camera handed out by an Israeli human rights group appears to show Jewish settlers beating up Palestinians in the West Bank

An elderly shepherd, his wife and a nephew said they were attacked by four masked men for allowing their animals to graze near the settlement of Susia. The rights group, B'Tselem, said the cameras were provided to enable Palestinians to get proof of attacks. A spokesman for the Israeli police said that an investigation was under way. So far, no-one has been arrested.

Inner city crime and the suburbs

Hanna Rosin writes about how tearing down inner city housing projects just disperses crime to the suburbs.

Diversity versus free speech in Canada

Steve Sailer blogs about how diversity dooms free speech.

A man wanted for allegedly touching a girl inappropriately and giving a female family member pornographic material was captured in New Jersey

Jose Ortiz Hernandez, 46, was arrested June 1, 2008 after being stopped for a traffic violation, according to police. Hernandez has been sought since Jan. 11, 2007, when a 14-year old female family member reported that he gave her explicit adult materials. Hernandez is suspected of touching the girl's 14-year old female friend inappropriately during a sleep over and exposing himself in front of both girls. Hernandez fled by the time police arrived to the scene. On June 1, Hernandez was stopped in Raritan, New Jersey after failing to stop at a stop sign. Hernandez provided the officer with his California Driver's License, which showed an arrest warrant in Gilroy. Hernandez was taken into custody, agreed to extradition and is awaiting transport back to California by the U.S Marshal's Office, according to police.

Islamic extremists in Britain are openly trying to recruit children through the Internet

They are using websites which carry messages of hate from terror suspects, according to the respected Civitas think-tank. The study, by its Centre for Social Cohesion, reveals how fanatics are using the Web to bypass the anti-terror laws passed in the wake of the 2005 London bombings. Extremists are no longer delivering hate-filled sermons and distributing propaganda on street corners, but instead use pro-jihadist websites. Some of these carry calls for the flag of Islam to 'fly over Downing Street', and urge militants to attack Jews and Christians. Most worrying are sections of the sites dedicated to the radicalization of children. One message from controversial preacher Omar Bakri - now exiled to Lebanon - says children should be brought up to spread Islam through jihad.

Muslim parents in Britain are to blame for leaving their children open to the lure of Islamic extremism

Dr Farhan Nizami CBE, a key adviser on Islam to the Prince of Wales, accused British Muslims of failing to make sure their children learn to speak English or supporting them in their education. He said this leaves them alienated from mainstream society and exposed to being groomed by radical Islamic groups. It is the first time Dr Nizami, the director of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, which has links with Oxford University, has spoken out about the failure of Muslims to integrate with British society. His comments come just weeks after the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, warned that radical Islam is filling the "moral vacuum" created by the decline of Christian values in Britain.

African-Americans and HIV/AIDS

While African-Americans make up only 12% of the U.S. population, 49% of new HIV/AIDS infections in men and 65% of new infections in women are among blacks.

Two Somali men in Britain have been charged with supporting terrorism overseas

Musse Said Yusuf, 31, of Higgs Close, Leicester, is accused of owning terrorist videos and running a website which published terrorist literature. Ahmed Said Mohammed, 32, of Devons Road, east London, was charged with having money for terrorist purposes. The men were arrested in May 2008 and are due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court. The arrests took place in dawn raids in a joint operation between the Metropolitan Police and Leicestershire Constabulary.

Thousands of South Africans have marched through the capital, Pretoria, to protest against the high crime rate

The protesters handed over a memorandum calling for urgent government action. The minister who accepted it on President Thabo Mbeki's behalf was drowned out in the chorus of boos as he tried to respond to their concerns. Popular actor and comedian Desmond Dube said he was inspired to organise the event, called the "Million Man March", after a neighbor was shot dead. The march comes a day after local reggae singer Tiny Motho Siluma was shot dead outside his home. His is the latest in a number of high-profile murders. In October 2007, there was outrage when the famous reggae artist Lucky Dube was also shot dead in Johannesburg. He was attacked by armed robbers in a suburb of the city.

The working classes are less intelligent than those from wealthier backgrounds and therefore less likely to be trained as doctors

Professor Chris McManus, of University College London, said it is not surprising that most British medical students are middle-class because intellectual ability is linked to social standing. He referred to one of his own research papers to support the claim, in an editorial for a leading medical journal. Prof McManus, a professor of psychology, made his claims as he criticized a "politically correct" Government scheme to help more working-class pupils become doctors.

A "campaign of violence" in Zimbabwe has extinguished any hope of free and fair run-off presidential elections, Human Rights Watch has warned

In a new report, the New-York-based group says it has extensive evidence linking senior officials loyal to Robert Mugabe with violent incidents. The report says torture camps have been run by President Mugabe's governing Zanu-PF party and its allies. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai faces Mr Mugabe in the 27 June 2008 vote. The Human Rights Watch report says violence against supporters of Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has worsened in the lead up to the run-off. "Zimbabweans can't vote freely if they fear their vote may get them killed," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

Somalis displaced by attacks against foreigners in South Africa have been threatening to drown themselves

The migrants were reportedly seeking to be resettled from a camp outside Cape Town that had been set up after the recent violence. A wave of anti-foreigner violence broke out in May 2008 north of Johannesburg and spread across the country. At least 70,000 people fled the attacks and more than 50 people were killed. Many foreigners took refuge in makeshift camps where conditions were poor, while others fled back to their home countries. The Red Cross said 36,000 people have returned to Mozambique from South Africa, while an estimated 1,900 people had fled to Malawi.

Among New Yorkers, the herpes rate is higher among women, black people and gay men

A city Health Department study finds that more than a fourth of adult New Yorkers are infected with the virus that causes genital herpes. The study, released Monday, says about 26% of New York City adults have genital herpes, compared to about 19% nationwide. The department says genital herpes can double a person's risk for contracting HIV/AIDS.

A 25-year HIV/AIDS health campaign was misplaced outside the continent of Africa

A quarter of a century after the outbreak of HIV/AIDS, the World Health Organization (WHO) has accepted that the threat of a global heterosexual pandemic has disappeared. In the first official admission that the universal prevention strategy promoted by the major Aids organisations may have been misdirected, Kevin de Cock, the head of the WHO's department of HIV/AIDS said there will be no generalised epidemic of AIDS in the heterosexual population outside Africa. Dr De Cock, an epidemiologist who has spent much of his career leading the battle against the disease, said understanding of the threat posed by the virus had changed. Whereas once it was seen as a risk to populations everywhere, it was now recognised that, outside sub-Saharan Africa, it was confined to high-risk groups including men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, and sex workers and their clients.

Black crime in the suburbs

Steve Sailer explains why black crime has little to do with public housing.

A Hindu monkey god has been named chairman of a new business school in northern India

The Associated Press says Lord Hanuman has "an incense-filled office, a desk and a laptop computer" at Sardar Bhagat Singh College of Technology and Management in Lucknow. Vivek Kangri, a vice chairman, tells Press Trust of India that Hanuman delegated his powers to two high-level school officials. "All correspondence and paper work in the name of Lord Hanuman is being done by the two and during the meetings the chairman's chair is left empty with both occupying the adjacent seats as a mark of respect," the news agency says.

Sweden and immigration

How is immigration affecting Sweden?

Gambian couple charged with mutilating their daughters in Norway

The mother and father of five daughters born and reared in Norway have been charged in what's considered the first enforcement and test of the country's new law against genital mutilation. The couple is originally from Gambia but both partners are now Norwegian citizens. They have a total of six daughters, and five of the six have been subjected to genital mutilation, according to Hanne Kristin Rohde of the Oslo Police District. Rohde told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that the parents were charged because they allegedly contributed to the genital mutilation of their daughters. The father is being held in police custody, while the mother is ill and pregnant with their seventh child and considered too weak to be held by police. Only the couple's youngest daughter, a three-year-old who lives with them in Oslo, has so far escaped genital mutilation, according to doctors who examined the girls. Her five-year-old sister had not, and both girls have been placed in the care of Norway's child protective services (Barnevernet). The six daughters range in age from three to 14 years. The four eldest live in Gambia with one of their father's other wives, according to police. Efforts were being made to bring the girls, who all have Norwegian passports, back to Norway, where they once went to school.

Arizona had a higher share of illegal immigrants than any other state, says a report from the Public Policy Institute of California

The institute estimates that in 2006, 8.3% of Arizona's population consisted of illegal migrants, followed by California with 7.8%; Texas, 7.1%; and Florida, 5.5%. About 3.9% of the country's population, or 11.5 million people, were illegal immigrants, the group estimates. California had the highest number of illegal immigrants, with 2.8 million, while Arizona had an estimated 500,000.

Britain should set an example to the world by reversing its steeply-rising population growth and allowing no more people into the country than leave

Jonathon Porritt, chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, said it was entirely possible to be "very progressive" on immigration while still having a policy of "zero net immigration" and no further population growth. Porritt told an audience at the Cheltenham Science Festival, he would like to see Britain's population on a declining trend, instead of increasing to 65 million in ten years and to 70 million by 2031. Porritt, who is a patron of the charity, the Optimum Population Trust, warned that globally spending on family planning was "massively" lower than the £8 billion spent on HIV/AIDS. Yet it should be around £12.5 billion to £15 billion if the world was to avoid a population of more than 9 billion or more by 2050. Porritt warned that in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, population trends were increasing "disastrously" because of low spending on family planning. In Kenya and Ethiopia, spending on family planning was now running at 2% of spending on HIV/AIDS. As a result the population of Kenya, which had been thought to be around 40 million by the mid-century was now expected to be 80 million. "We are guaranteeing an unstoppable flow of problems like HIV and AIDS into the future," he said.

A judge has sparked outrage by ruling that an illegal immigrant from India who sexually abused a young girl will be allowed to stay in Britain

Nurul Islam will cost taxpayers more than £200,000 after being jailed for 5½ years. Indian-born Islam, 35, of Oxford, began preying on the victim when she was 12. He admitted ten counts of sex acts on a child. But Judge Julian Hall told him at Oxford Crown Court: “I do not make a recommendation for deportation and I do not find you are dangerous. This is not a man who is going to go out on to the street looking to cause harm.” The Home Office says criminals from outside Europe should be deported if jailed for more than 12 months. The judge’s decision was slammed as “outrageous” by UKIP MP Bob Spink. He said: “This man has broken the law to get into the country, then broken the law while he is here.” Mark Wallace, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, added: “This sends out an awful message.” Judge Hall previously jailed a rapist for only two years, saying his ten-year-old victim was dressed provocatively.

Hispanic high school students use drugs and attempt suicide at higher rates than their black or white classmates

The study is the latest in a series of surveys of U.S. high school students every two years. The new report noted that black and white students are reporting less sexual activity than in years past, but there was no decline among Hispanics. In addition, Hispanic students were more likely than either blacks or whites to attempt suicide, ride with a driver who had been drinking alcohol, or use cocaine, heroin or ecstasy. Hispanics also most often drank alcohol on school property, were offered or sold illegal drugs, and occasionally skipped school because they feared for their safety, according to the 2007 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

An Indian court has ruled that state-owned airline Air India has the right to prevent its air hostesses from flying for being overweight

The Delhi high court was responding to a case filed by five air hostesses who had been grounded by the airline for being too fat to fly. The air hostesses are expected to appeal against the decision. The judges agreed with the airline's view that overweight crew present a safety and health hazard. They also said that, in the highly competitive airline industry, an air hostess's physical condition and appearance played an important role in her overall personality. Air India, whose air hostesses wear traditional Indian saris, is facing a stiff challenge from a number of private airlines with younger flight crew typically dressed in skirts or Western suits. A few years ago, during a recruitment drive for new crew, the airline said that it would not consider applicants with acne or bad teeth.

Obama and education

So how do you go about improving education in America?

The unemployment rate among Latinos is rising faster than the rate for non-Hispanic workers in the United States

Latino workers have lost nearly 250,000 jobs in the construction industry over the past year, with the foreign-born hit hardest, the report by the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center said. The unemployment rate for Latino workers was 7.3% for the first quarter of 2008, compared with 6.1% for the same period last year. The rate for all other workers was 5%, up from 4.6%. For the first time since 2003, the unemployment rate for Latinos not born in the United States was higher, at 7.5%, than the rate for native-born Latinos, at 6.9%, the report found.

Hispanic workers face a greater risk of dying from work-related injuries, with one in three deaths occurring in the construction industry

Between 1992 and 2006, 11,303 Hispanic workers died from work-related injuries. This represents approximately 13% of all work-related deaths in the United States during that time, a higher rate than for white or black workers, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Work-related fatalities are going down for the workforce in general, but the disparity between Hispanic and non-Hispanic is persistent and not going away," Dr. Sherry Baron, coordinator of the Occupational Health Disparities Program at the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said during a teleconference. "In 2006, the rate was 25% higher in Hispanics compared to all workers," Baron said. "Most striking is the especially high rate for foreign-born Hispanic workers. Foreign-born Hispanic workers had a 70% higher rate of work-related injury deaths compared to native-born Hispanic workers," she said.

The Michigan Education Association says the number of African-American and Hispanic students dropping out of school is staggering

A report released by Education Week magazine shows only a third of young black men in Michigan graduated in 2005.

Buchanan versus Cohen

Pat Buchanan exposes the hypocrisy of liberals like Richard Cohen over racial voting.

A four-year-old girl was repeatedly raped, allegedly by her relative at her home in South Africa

"The girl was left alone with the relative, 48, after he and other family members had been staying with her mother, after the child's father passed away," said Police Inspector Kay Makhuvele. He said that it was not clear how many times the girl had been raped, or over what period of time. "She may have been raped over a number of days, and we are still trying to find out where her mother and the rest of the relatives went when the rape was happening," he said.

A black man who told police he was nearly lynched by a group of white men actually ran into a clothesline after arguing with his wife

The man whose name was not immediately available, called the sheriff and said a group of men tried to hang him in rural Carter County after he stopped to help an elderly farmer round up straying cattle. Sheriff Ken Grace said deputies and FBI agents investigated the case, and the man told officers that he made up the false claim. "He said they accused him of stealing cattle, wrapped a rope around his neck and dragged him around and beat him," Grace said. "Later, he admitted that he was arguing with his wife at an apartment complex and went running through the yard and ran into a clothesline and got the burn on his neck. His wife confirmed that.

A Sri Lankan mother suspected of stabbing two of her children to death was lonely and depressed by her life in Britain

Police have detained Sasikala Navaneethan, 35, under the Mental Health Act over the deaths of her son, 5, and his sister, 4. Their six-month-old sister remains in a critical condition after all three children were stabbed at their home in Carshalton, South London. Police have refused to give details of the incident but sources suggested that the throats of the older children had been cut.

Dogs and Somali immigrants

Allan Wall has an interesting post on the irrational views of Somali Muslims concerning dogs.

4 Algerian Christians have been given suspended jail terms and fines for worshipping illegally

This is how Christians are treated in a predominantly Islamic country.

Two Spanish men have been arrested in Gambia accused of making homosexual advances to taxi drivers, police say

Recently, President Yahya Jammeh threatened to behead gay people at a political rally and said they had 24 hours to leave the country. He promised "stricter laws than Iran" on homosexuality and said he would "cut off the head" of any gay person. Gambia is predominantly Muslim and President Jammeh cultivates an image of being a devout Muslim. Homosexual sex is illegal in Gambia where those convicted of consensual homosexual acts face jail terms of up to 14 years.

Prehistoric man may have executed rivals from neighbouring tribes to steal their women, research has found

A study of 7,000-year-old skeletons, led by Durham University scientists, found that one of the burial groups consisted only of men and children. This indicated that the women were spared and their capture could have been the motive for the attack. The findings, from a burial pit in Talheim, Germany, are published in the journal Antiquity. The 34 skeletons were discovered in the 1980s, but new studies of different types (isotopes) of atoms in their teeth show that they came from three groups - locals, cattle-herders and a "family" of a man, woman and two children. All the skeletons bore marks to the left side of the skull showing that they were hit in the head with an axe, indicating they were executed while bound. The scientists concluded the absence of local females meant they were captured instead. Dr Alex Bentley, from Durham University's Anthropology Department, said: "It seems this community was specifically targeted, as could happen in a cycle of revenge between rival groups. Although resources and population were undoubtedly factors in central Europe around that time, women appear to be the immediate reason for the attack. Our analysis points to the local women being regarded as somehow special and were therefore kept alive." Dr Bentley added: "It looks like tribal warfare on a small scale. It's crucial for a group which has a very small population to have access to mates."

A police officer ordered two Christian preachers to stop handing out gospel leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham, England

The evangelists say they were threatened with arrest for committing a "hate crime" and were told they risked being beaten up if they returned. The incident will fuel fears that "no-go areas" for Christians are emerging in British towns and cities, as the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, claimed in The Sunday Telegraph. Arthur Cunningham, 48, and Joseph Abraham, 65, both full-time evangelical ministers, have launched legal action against West Midlands Police, claiming the officer infringed their right to profess their religion. Mr Abraham said: "I couldn't believe this was happening in Britain. The Bishop of Rochester was criticised by the Church of England recently when he said there were no-go areas in Britain but he was right; there are certainly no-go areas for Christians who want to share the gospel."

Nearly three decades after Seattle Public Schools integrated almost all its schools through busing, that racial balance is long gone

Leschi Elementary, about evenly divided between white and minority students in 1980, has a nearly all-minority population once again. The same is true for Brighton Elementary, Dunlap Elementary, Van Asselt Elementary — and all but two of the 26 schools that, the year before busing started, were considered racially imbalanced. Today, a total of 30 schools — close to a third of the district's buildings — have nonwhite populations that far exceed the district's average of 58 percent. In 20 of them, nonwhite enrollment is 90 percent or more. Seattle schools don't look exactly like they did before district wide busing began in 1978. There are fewer nearly all-white schools. Minority students are not as concentrated as they once were in the central part of the city. But Seattle Public Schools, like many districts across the nation, has slowly, steadily resegregated. "We like to think of ourselves as these enlightened, liberal folks," says School Board member Harium Martin-Morris. "But the fact is our schools aren't the way that people really think they are."

More than two million foreign nationals have moved to Britain in recent years and nine in 10 of them came from outside Europe

MigrationwatchUK has calculated that a net 2.3 million immigrants arrived in Britain between 1991 and 2006, the majority of them from developing economies in Africa and Asia. Only 205,000 came from the East European nations that have joined the European Union since 2004, according to Migrationwatch's analysis of official population statistics.

Immigrant leaders make threats against South Africans

Immigrant leaders in South Africa have said that thousands of refugees frustrated at miserable living conditions were on the point of retaliating against a wave of xenophobic attacks. Tens of thousands of immigrants have been forced to take refuge at temporary shelters around the country after mobs began attacking migrants in squatter camps three weeks ago, killing at least 62 people. "The tension is there, already, for a war," Deo Kabemba Bin Ngulu, a refugee leader from the Democratic Republic of Congo, told reporters.

A mass study found that deaths of children fathered by over-45s occurred at almost twice the rate of those fathered by men aged between 25 and 30

Scientists believe that children of older fathers are more likely to suffer particular congenital defects as well as autism, schizophrenia and epilepsy. The study was the first of its kind of such magnitude in the West, and researchers believe the findings are linked to the declining quality of sperm as men age. A total of 100,000 children born between 1980 and 1996 were examined, of whom 830 have so far died before they reached 18, the majority when they were less than a year old. The deaths of many of the children of the older fathers were related to congenital defects such as problems of the heart and spine, which increase the risk of infant mortality. But there were also higher rates of accidental death, which the researchers believe might be explained by the increased likelihood of suffering from autism, epilepsy or schizophrenia.

The educational progress of Mexican-Americans does not improve over the generations

Steve Sailer blogs about the sad reality that despite 60 years of political and legal battles to improve the education of Mexican Americans, they continue to have the lowest average education levels and the highest high school dropout rates among major ethnic and racial groups in the United States.

Islamic terrorists may be targeting mentally disturbed or disabled people in Britain in a bid to form a new brigade of home-grown suicide bombers

MI5 and police say the case of Nicky Reilly, who is being held over a nailbomb attack in Exeter, may indicate a new strategy of targeting vulnerable people with mental health problems to carry out attacks. A counterterrorism official said MI5 was investigating the extent to which Reilly had been manipulated by a “charismatic” Al-Qaeda recruiter. “It is a grotesque concept but they are using people who are clearly mentally subnormal,” the official said. “We know they have clever radicalisers who will take advantage of anyone they think they can manipulate, whether they have an IQ of 60 or 140,” he said. Reilly, 22, is a Muslim convert who has spent time detained in a mental health hospital. He has been described as a shambling introvert with the mental age of a 10-year-old. He is believed to have Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, and may also suffer from schizophrenia. Security officials say Al-Qaeda appears to have exported the tactic from Iraq, where disabled “foot soldiers” have been used to devastating effect. They point to a case in February when a suicide bomber in a wheelchair killed an Iraqi general in Samarra, north of Baghdad. Earlier, two women, initially thought to have Down’s syndrome, acted as couriers for a bomb in Baghdad, killing almost 100 people.

The Swiss are poised to vote on whether to revive secret ballots to decide on citizenship

Switzerland's Supreme Court outlawed the secret ballots five years ago, ruling that they were discriminatory. But many Swiss say not allowing voters to have the final say violates Switzerland's system of direct democracy. Switzerland already has some of the toughest naturalisation laws in the world. Candidates for citizenship must have lived in the country for at least 12 years - they must prove that they can speak the language, and that they understand Swiss laws and culture. What is more, being born in Switzerland does not bring an automatic right to citizenship. In Switzerland, people wanting to be Swiss must apply through their local community. In many towns and villages, the final hurdle to citizenship is often the approval of local residents at a town hall meeting, or, in the past, by secret ballot. Two ethnic Turkish men, Elias Ego and Manuel Dogdu, have long experience of this process. They have lived all their lives in the central Swiss town of Schwyz, but they have Turkish nationality. Schwyz, with a population of 40,000, was one of the towns which used secret ballots to approve new citizens. "They distributed brochures with our pictures to all the voters," remembers Elias. "There was a little CV with information about us, and our nationality. We had passed all the language tests with flying colours," adds Manuel. "The authorities recommended us for citizenship." Manuel and Elias, together with their parents, brothers and sisters, had hoped the ballot would be a formality. Instead it turned out to be a humiliating public rejection. "We've been rejected four times now," says Manuel.

An Amnesty International report has found that Israel attacks innocent Palestinian civilians and exploits foreigners

On the Israel-Palestinian front, the report labels the closure of the Gaza Strip as tantamount to the collective punishment of its million and half residents, who have been left without gasoline, food and drinking water. The report adds that 40 Palestinians died as a result of restrictions forbidding them to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment. The report said that of the 9,000 prisoners in Israeli jails, many are minors, and some have never been indicted for any crime or been brought to trial.

McClellan, Bush and the Neocons

Neoconservative ideology, not U.S. national interests, motivated Bush to launch one of the longest and most divisive wars in U.S. history.

Bishop says collapse of Christianity is wrecking British society and Islam is filling the void

The collapse of Christianity has wrecked British society, a leading Church of England bishop has declared. It has destroyed family life and left the country defenceless against the rise of radical Islam in a moral and spiritual vacuum. In a lacerating attack on liberal values, the Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, said the country was mired in a doctrine of 'endless self-indulgence' that had brought an explosion in public violence and binge-drinking. In a blow to Gordon Brown, he mocked the 'scramblings and scratchings' of politicians who try to cast new British values such as respect and tolerance. The Pakistani-born bishop dated the downfall of Christianity from the 'social and sexual revolution' of the 1960s. He said Church leaders had capitulated to Marxist revolutionary thinking and quoted an academic who blames the loss of 'faith and piety among women' for the steep decline in Christian worship. Dr Nazir-Ali said the ' newfangled and insecurely founded' doctrine of multiculturalism has left immigrant communities 'segregated, living parallel lives'. Christian values of human dignity, equality and freedom could be lost as the way is left open for the advance of brands of Islam that do not respect Western values.

Hat tip, Steve Sailer!

A student of an Islamic seminary in Pakistan's Punjab province has died after he was punished by his teacher

Atif, seven, was hung upside down from a ceiling fan by Maulvi Ziauddin for not memorizing his Koran lessons, his fellow students told the police. Atif's condition deteriorated quickly and he died in the teacher's room. Maulvi Ziauddin has been arrested. Human rights organizations say Pakistani children are often exposed to abuse.

An Indian woman accused of witchcraft was beaten, gagged and burnt to death in a remote eastern village

The woman was dragged out of her home, her hands and legs tied and taken to a crematorium where she was set on fire in front of the village which ignored her screams for help. The victim was murdered by the husband and relatives of a neighbor whose death was blamed on her witchcraft. Dozens of women are killed every year on suspicion of being witches or witch doctors in India where superstition is widespread.

Why Britain struggles to assimilate immigrants

Theodore Dalrymple on the problems that immigration has created in Britain.

Ethnic and religious homogeneity brings peace in Kurdistan

Randall Parker on how peace came to a part of Iraq.

Muslim honor killing victim wanted to live like other German girls

At age 16, all Morsal Obeidi wanted was to live the way other girls in Germany do. She paid dearly: Obeidi's brother stabbed her 20 times. Her murder has sparked a renewed debate in Germany about the failure of many immigrant families to integrate into Western society.

A teenage Somali drug dealer has died four days after being shot in the head in north London

Sharmaarke Hassan, 17, was found with a gunshot wound in Gilbeys Yard, Camden. The teenager from Camden, who had drugs convictions, died in hospital from his injuries. The 17-year-old is the 15th teenager to be killed in London since the start of the year. Police have said they are keeping an open mind about the motive for the killing but believe he was a member of The Money Squad, one of a number of Somali gangs in the area. He had been previously found guilty of possessing cannabis and offering to supply the drugs, the Crown Prosecution Service said. The murder is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police's Operation Trident unit, which looks at gun crime in London's Afro-Caribbean communities.

Kenya police have arrested 86 people in connection with killing of 11 elderly people suspected of being witches

Eight women and three men were burned to death in the western Kisii district, where belief in witchcraft is widespread. Those arrested may face charges ranging from murder to robbery with violence. Investigations were still under way but those charged with murder could face the death sentence. Five of the suspects were found in possession of property and livestock belonging to some of the victims and will be tried for violent robbery.

South Africa's Western Cape is to ask for parts of the province to be declared a disaster zone in the wake of recent anti-foreigner violence

The provincial government also asked for UN help in dealing with the crisis. UN and Red Cross figures suggest more than 70,000 foreigners have fled the attacks with 33,000 fleeing to neighbouring nations. Aid agencies are pushing for a disaster zone to be declared around Johannesburg in Gauteng province, where the anti-foreigner attacks began. Most of the immigrants are still sheltering in community halls, churches and police stations and some are sleeping out in the open. In Gauteng, police clashed with mainly Somali migrants as they fought with other foreigners in a relief camp near the capital, Pretoria. The migrants blocked and attacked other foreigners trying to make their way from a makeshift camp to a new, tented camp.

Why East Asians and Native Americans have thick hair

Here is Razib's take on it.

Dogs and genetics

The government is importing dogs from Europe because they have desirable bloodlines.

A class of primary school children in Naples has shocked Italy after submitting homework which supported the burning of gypsy camps

Locals first set fire to the camp in retaliation when a gypsy girl had tried to steal a baby elsewhere in the city. Since then it has been repeatedly attacked, with more petrol bombs launched at its makeshift buildings. Teachers at the school had set the children the task of explaining how they felt about the persecution of the gypsies. The response was an alarming series of drawings and essays, many of which supported the vigilante action. The attacks and essays come against a backdrop of growing intolerance to immigrants, fuelled by hard-line partners in the new government of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. A report by Amnesty International has warned that Italy was now “dangerous” for illegal immigrants. Italy’s statistics agency, ISTAT, has released numbers showing that immigrants are responsible for more than a third of the murders committed in 2007. ISTAT said foreigners had committed 70% of all petty theft, 39% of sexual offenses and 36% of murders.

Every third Somali man in the welfare state of Sweden chews khat

Use of the illegal drug khat is widespread in Sweden's immigrant suburbs but the police have chosen to turn a blind eye. Swedish courts have ruled that narcotics crimes involving khat will only be categorized as serious if at least 400 kilos of the drug is involved. Anyone caught smuggling less than this amount will at most be fined and ordered to perform community service. A critical report issued by the National Police Board’s intelligence division has calculated that 400 kilos is equivalent to 16,000 “abuse doses”, a measure often used by the justice system to calculate the seriousness of a narcotics offence. The report then highlights two Supreme Court cases involving GHB and Rohypnol, where 150 and 200 “abuse doses” are sufficient to render as serious drug offences involving these substances. In Somalia almost everybody chews khat. Many soldiers participating in the country’s civil war chew it to fight, while others chew it to escape the effects of war. The rest chew it because everybody else does. The effects of the stimulant are well-documented. Users can become talkative, euphoric and emotionally unbalanced. The effects of long-term use can be devastating, often leading to personality disorders and other serious mental health problems.

Sweden's parliament has approved a center-right government proposal to deny subsidized public health care services to illegal immigrants

The law, which is largely a formalization of the current practice, stipulates that clandestine immigrants and rejected asylum seekers can only receive emergency medical care if they pay for it themselves. The parliament voted 265-33 in favour of the proposal, with the left-wing Green Party and Left Party voting against it on humanitarian grounds.

Muslim gangs are threatening to take control of one of Britain's top security prisons where inmates include al-Qa'eda terrorists

Staff at Whitemoor jail, Cambs, believe a "serious incident is imminent" as several wings become dominated by Muslim prisoners. There is an ongoing theme of fear and instability among employees, says the Prison Service's Directorate of High Security report. "There is much talk around the establishment about 'the Muslims'," it says. Some staff believe the situation has resulted in Muslim prisoners becoming more of a gang than a religious group. "The sheer numbers, coupled with a lack of awareness among staff, appear to be engendering fear and handing control to the prisoners," the report says. The situation has become so bad that white prisoners are warned about the Muslim gangs by staff on arrival. The concern about Muslim prisoners is in danger of leading to hostility and Islamophobia, the report warns. "Staff appear reluctant to challenge inappropriate behaviour, in particular among black and ethnic minority prisoners, for fear of doing the wrong thing," the report adds. "This is leading to a general feeling of a lack of control and shifting the power dynamic towards prisoners." Just under a third of the 500 prisoners at Whitemoor are Muslim.

Although polygamy is illegal in the U.S., some Muslim men in America have quietly married multiple wives

No one knows how many Muslims in the U.S. live in polygamous families. But according to academics researching the issue, estimates range from 50,000 to 100,000 people. You can see some of the women involved in polygamous marriages in the lobby of Sanctuary for Families, a nonprofit women's center in New York City. It bursts with color as a dozen women in bright African dresses and head wraps gather for a weekly noon meeting for West African immigrants. The women come each week to this support group where they discuss hard issues, such as domestic abuse, medical problems, immigration hurdles and polygamy. Polygamy is freely practiced in parts of Africa, and almost every one of the women in the group has experienced polygamy firsthand – either as a wife in a plural marriage or having been raised in families with one father who has two or more wives. Group member Sarah says that in her native Guinea, the husband springs it on his wife that he's going to marry someone else. Sarah, like the others interviewed for this story, would give only her first name. "Sometimes he say, 'OK, I am going to be married tomorrow,' or 'I'm going to be married today.' He's going ask you like that. It happened to me," she says. Sarah begins to cry. Others nod in sympathy. These women are all Muslim. The Koran states that men may marry up to four women. The Prophet Mohammad had multiple wives.

Australian town moves against Islamic school

Twice the town has managed to rebuff the fast food giant McDonald's. Now it has mobilised to block the construction of the Islamic school. Back in November, more than 1,000 local people took part in a public meeting. Many participants expressed themselves with little regard for political correctness. "This has to be one of the nicest places in New South Wales," said one woman, who has lived in Camden for the past nine years. "Everywhere is being destroyed. Why don't we tell the truth. They're wrecking Australia. They're taking us over," she said. "Why hasn't anyone got any guts? They've got terrorists amongst 'em... They want to be here so they can go and hide in all the farm houses... This town has every nationality... but Muslims do not fit in this town. We are Aussies, OK." Some of the loudest cheers of the night greeted a speech from a local man in his late 70s. "Can I just say this without being racist or political?" he said. "In 1983, in the streets of London a parade by Muslims chanted incessantly 'If we can take London, we can take the world'. Don't let them take Camden."

White guilt, Jewish guilt and ethnocentrism

Steve Sailer blogs about the differences between Jewish and white guilt.

The latest federal figures showed that 32% of the 510,000 children in foster care were black in 2006, compared with 15% of all U.S. children

Several leading child welfare groups have urged an overhaul of federal laws dealing with transracial adoption, arguing that black children in foster care are ill-served by a "colorblind" approach meant to encourage their adoption by white families.

A HIV-positive Ugandan woman's claim to stay in Britain has been rejected by the European Court of Human Rights

Her lawyers argued that a lack of medical care in Uganda would lead to her early death, and this would amount to cruel and degrading treatment. The government denies this, saying all NHS HIV drugs are available in Uganda. The court agreed that if the unnamed woman were sent back to Uganda, there would be no violation of the bar on inhuman or degrading treatment. When the woman entered Britain in March 1998 under an assumed name, she was seriously ill and was admitted to hospital. Soon afterwards, solicitors lodged an asylum application on her behalf, claiming she had been raped by government soldiers in Uganda because of her association with the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group in the north of the country. The lawyers argued that her life would be in danger if she were returned to Uganda. By November 1998, she was diagnosed with two illnesses which are known to be indicators of having AIDS, and as being in an extremely advanced state of HIV infection. Her asylum claim was rejected in March 2001, a decision she appealed against. In rejecting her claim, the secretary of state found no evidence that Ugandan authorities were interested in her and that treatment of AIDS in Uganda was comparable to any other African country. The secretary of state also found that all the major anti-viral drugs were available in Uganda at highly subsidised prices. In January the government sent a terminally ill Ghanaian woman who had been receiving treatment in the UK back to her country because her visa had expired.

How the British lost their empire and the West lost the world

Pat Buchanan blogs about how the British blundered into two world wars.

The government has been unable to stem the flow of African asylum seekers crossing into Israel from the Sinai Desert

Since 2005, the number of asylum seekers that have illegally entered Israel has escalated. In the 15 months that elapsed between January 2007 and March 2008, 10,000 Africans crossed into Israel from its southern border.

A Jamaican asylum seeker has been jailed in Britain for five years after admitting serious firearms offences

Anthony Davis, 28, could now face being deported back to Jamaica where his two brothers have been assassinated. Davis had previously pleaded guilty to possessing a loaded Baikal 9mm handgun and silencer. Judge Robert Brown, sitting at Preston Crown Court, told Davis he would leave it to the authorities to decide if he would be deported. He added: "I infer that you had no intention at any stage during a prolonged period of weeks and months to hand either the gun or the silencer to the appropriate authorities. They both therefore remained at large and represented a significant and serious danger to members of the public."

Norway turns to the right

A new public opinion poll indicates that fully 45.5% of Norwegian voters would cast ballots for either the right-wing Progress Party or the Conservatives. Together, they have far more support than the current left-center coalition government and are close to a majority in parliament. The results of the poll, conducted by research bureau Opinion for news group ANB, mark a major shift in traditional political persuasion in a country modelled as a social welfare state. And the results are bad news for the Labor Party, which currently heads the left-centere government. Newspaper Dagsavisen has reported that fully 27.7% of voters now support the Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, Frp), Norway's most right-leaning party represented in parliament. That's up 1.5% from the last poll. The poll results indicate that the Progress Party is thus Norway's largest, bigger than Labor, which garnered 25.3% of the vote, down 1.7 points. That's a relatively small amount of support for Labor and a real downturn for the party, given its history of dominance in Norwegian politics. The Conservative Party (Høyre), meanwhile, also gained voter support, up 1.4 points to 17.8%. That's quite a bit smaller than the Progress Party, but together, the two parties could rather easily form a non-socialist ("borgerlig") government with more than 45% of the vote. By contrast, the three parties forming the current government with Labor together commanded only 36.9% of the vote, ironically the exact same percentage that former Labor leader Thorbjørn Jagland once said was needed by Labor alone to rule. Labour had to leave power in 1997 when it "only" won 35% in national elections. The current poll shows just how far Labor has fallen since that time. Its government partner SV (the Socialist Left party) also saw support slip, to 5.9%, while the Center Party (sp) rose slightly, to 5.7% of the vote.

Blacks and Hispanics spend up to 30% more than whites of comparable income on visible goods like clothing, cars and jewelry

This meant that, compared to white households of similar income, the typical black and Hispanic household spent $2,300 more per year on visible items. To do that, they spent less on almost all other categories (except housing), and they saved less. Researchers found that blacks and Hispanics spent 16% and 30% less, respectively, on education than whites of similar income. They also spent 50% less on health care.