Australian research into the academic performance of twins in NAPLAN tests has revealed that skills in maths, reading and spelling are up to 75% genetic

Genetics also had a 50% impact on writing skills. In stark contrast, the influence of teachers and schools on students was only found to be around 5%, when looking at why children performed better or worse than their peers. The research has been conducted by Emeritus Professor Brian Byrne and colleagues at the Centre of Excellence for Cognition and its Disorders, and the University of New England. Byrne and his colleagues were allowed access to around 3000 sets of twins and were able to look at their academic performance in literacy and numeracy NAPLAN tests in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Families, teachers and schools had a much more modest contribution when explaining the difference in academic performance of children in the same grade or class. The majority of difference between students’ abilities in literacy and numeracy were instead attributable to their genetic make-up. Writing skills were the least influenced by genetics – only about 50%. Genetic influences on reading, spelling and mathematics abilities were found to be between 50% - 75%. “Genes are the things that are, for the most part, driving differences among children, and not different teachers or even different schools,” Byrne said.

The increase of foreign-born children in Swedish schools has played a part in the country’s overall decline in educational achievement and test scores in recent years, officials report

The number of teenagers who failed to qualify for upper secondary school in Sweden increased from 10% in 2006 to more than 14% in 2015. A report by the Swedish Education Agency has concluded that 85% of the increase was explained by immigrant students unable to catch up with Swedes of the same age. Over the past decade, Swedish test scores on the OECD’s so-called PISA ranking of school performance among 15-year-olds has seen the most dramatic drop out of all the countries taking part in the survey. At the same time, the percentage of students in Swedish schools who had arrived in the country after the age of seven jumped from 3% in 2006 to 8% in 2015. The report, entitled The Importance of Immigration for School Results, defines immigrant students as children who are either foreign-born or whose parents are both born outside Sweden. It concluded that as immigrant students now arrive in greater numbers and at an older age, they had less time to learn Swedish and catch up in vital subjects before leaving Year 9. As a result, an increasing number of foreign-born students fail to obtain the grades needed to move on to Swedish upper secondary school – equivalent to A-levels or High School. "We already know that immigrant students on average have lower performance in school," said Education Agency Director Anna Ekstrom. "Now we know more about how much the increasing proportion of immigrant students has affected overall performance."

Nearly half of African-American adults are at risk of developing hypertension, a rate significantly higher than that of any other group in the United States

Hypertension-related ailments, such as strokes and end-stage renal disease, account for 20% of all deaths among African-Americans. Then there are the lesser-known facts - such as the inherent differences between blacks and whites in blood pressure regulation both during rest and exercise. These disparities exist even among healthy, non-hypertensive blacks. African-Americans respond differently to different forms of physiological stress, such as exercise, cold and other acute forms of stress. Researchers are looking at mechanisms to help explain theses differences. A thorough understanding of biological mechanisms associated with hypertension could have significant ramifications for all racial and ethnic groups. There appears to be less of an ability to defend against hypersensitive challenges and increases in blood pressure among African-American participants.

In a long-term study of the 8th grade class of 2004, only 13% of blacks or Hispanics, compared to 29% of whites, had obtained any post-secondary credential 11 years later

About one-third of both black and Hispanic children in Texas live in poverty, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s encyclopedic Kids Count project. That’s triple the share for Texas whites. In every major Texas city, minority children are vastly more likely than whites to attend schools where most of their classmates qualify as low-income. Fewer than one-in-five Texan African American and Hispanic students score as proficient in 8th grade reading on national tests — less than half the level for whites.

A 16-year-old Danish Muslim girl has been charged with planning attacks on two schools, one of them Jewish

The girl, who was 15 when she was arrested in January 2016, allegedly planned bombing attacks on a Jewish school in Copenhagen and another school in Denmark. She had acquired chemicals to create the explosives, according to Danish prosecutors. A friend, 24, who prosecutors said provided the bomb-making manuals, was charged as an accessory. Both of the suspects, who have not been named, maintain their innocence. The girl recently converted to Islam and her friend had fought with the Islamic State in Syria.

Nearly half of Israeli Jews want Arabs to be expelled from Israel and many have lost hope in a two-state solution to the Palestinian question, according to a survey

The poll by the Washington-based Pew Research Center, a non-partisan think tank, found that 48% of Israeli Jews support the idea of moving Arabs out of Israel, where they make up 19% of the population of 8.4 million. Up to 71% of Jews who consider themselves ultra-Orthodox, religious or “traditional” and 36% of the secular community agree. In addition, about eight in 10 Arabs complained of heavy discrimination in Israeli society against Muslims, the largest religious minority, while 79% of Jews questioned said that Jewish citizens deserved preferential treatment.

Poll: 61% of Americans agree that continued immigration into the country jeopardizes the United States

The degree of concern is remarkable considering that the question was about all immigration, including the legal kind. A belief that immigration jeopardizes the United States was common across age groups, although highest among baby boomers (65%) and lowest among millennials (55%). By education, it was highest among those with just a high school education or some college (65%), and by region it was highest in the South, including Texas (66%).

A powerful Pakistani religious body that advises the government on the compatibility of laws with Islam has declared a new law that criminalizes violence against women to be un-Islamic

The Women's Protection Act, passed by Pakistan's largest province of Punjab, gives unprecedented legal protection to women from domestic, psychological and sexual violence. It also calls for the creation of a toll-free abuse reporting hot line and the establishment of women's shelters. But since its passage in the Punjab assembly, many Islamic clerics and religious leaders have denounced the new law as being in conflict with the Muslim holy book, the Koran, as well as Pakistan's constitution. "The whole law is wrong," Muhammad Khan Sherani, the head of the Council of Islamic Ideology said at a news conference, citing verses from the Koran to point out that the law was un-Islamic. The 54-year-old council is known for its controversial decisions. In the past it has ruled that DNA cannot be used as primary evidence in rape cases, and it supported a law that requires women alleging rape to get four male witnesses to testify in court before a case is heard. The council's decision in January 2016 to block a bill to impose harsher penalties for marrying off girls as young as eight or nine has angered human rights activists. The new law establishes district-level panels to investigate reports of abuse, and mandates the use of GPS bracelets to keep track of offenders. It also sets punishments of up to a year in jail for violators of court orders related to domestic violence, with that period rising to two years for repeat offenders. Fazlur Rehman, the chief of one of Pakistan's largest religious parties, the Jamiat-i-Ulema Islam, said that the law was in conflict with both Islam and the constitution of Pakistan. "This law makes a man insecure," he said. "This law is an attempt to make Pakistan a Western colony again." In 2013, more than 5,800 cases of violence against women were reported in Punjab alone, the province where the law was passed, according to the Aurat Foundation, a women's rights advocacy group. Those cases represented 74% of the national total that year, the latest for which data is available.

Research from an investigator at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and colleagues from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and other facilities, shows differences in a certain type of small protein vary by race and may contribute differently to the development of lung cancer in African Americans and European Americans

African Americans have a higher chance of developing lung cancer and have lower lung cancer survival rates as compared to European Americans, which research shows may be due to differences in genetics as well as other factors. Identification of biomarkers that would uniquely distinguish African Americans at a high risk of lung cancer may help to bridge the gap in lung cancer racial health disparities. The research looked at cytokines, which are small proteins released by cells that affect communication between cells. The research team hypothesized that a difference in serum cytokine levels between the two populations may yield some answers. They analyzed the levels of ten serum cytokines in blood samples from over 450 African-American and European-American lung cancer patients or healthy adults. They found that the levels of six cytokines were significantly higher among European Americans than African Americans. The levels of two cytokines were associated with lung cancer in both races, but other elevated cytokine levels were associated with lung cancer only in African Americans. These findings suggest that cytokine levels in the blood vary by race and may contribute to lung cancer differently between African Americans and European Americans.

Hispanic Republican admits that he prefers Joe Biden to Donald Trump

Former RNC Chairman Mel Martinez says that he wishes Joe Biden was running so he could vote for him instead of Donald Trump. And people wonder why so many white Republicans despise the GOP leadership.

Jewish neocons would rather have Hillary Clinton as president than Donald Trump

Leading Jewish neocons — people who promoted the Iraq War, detest Putin and consider Israel’s security non-negotiable — have said that Trump would be a disaster for U.S. foreign policy and vowed never to support him. So deep is their revulsion that several even say that they could vote for Hillary Clinton over Trump in November 2016. “Hillary is the lesser evil, by a large margin,” said Eliot Cohen, a former top State Department official under George W. Bush and a strategic theorist who argues for a muscular U.S. role abroad. Trump’s election would be “an unmitigated disaster for American foreign policy,” Cohen said, adding that “he has already damaged it considerably.” Cohen - an Iraq war backer - said that he would “strongly prefer a third party candidate” to Trump, but added: “Probably if absolutely no alternative: Hillary.” Max Boot, a Jewish military historian at the Council on Foreign Relations who backed the Iraq War and often advocates a hawkish foreign policy, said that he, too, would vote for Clinton over Trump. “I’m literally losing sleep over Donald Trump,” he said. “She would be vastly preferable to Trump.”

Jewish leaders back Ted Cruz, saying that he's the best hope for the survival of Israel

Ted Cruz has repeatedly emphasized his commitment to Israel and the Jewish people, which he said began long before he became a senator and a presidential candidate. Cruz vowed that as president, "I will stand unapologetically with Israel, prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons" and "move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem" among other executive actions.

Half of black Americans born into poverty stay poor

Upward mobility from the bottom of the income distribution is much less likely for black than white Americans: 51% of the black Americans born into the lowest fifth of the earnings distribution remain there at age 40. Downward inter-generational social mobility from the middle to the bottom is much more common among black Americans. Seven out of ten black Americans born into the middle quintile fall into one of the two quintiles below as adults. In some ways, this is an even more depressing fact than the poor rates of upward mobility. Even black Americans who make it to the middle class are likely to see their kids fall down the ladder. Race gaps in wealth – already wide – widened further during the Great Recession. The median wealth of white households is now 13 times greater than for black households – the largest gap in a quarter century, according to analysis by the Pew Research Center. Black median wealth almost halved during the recession, falling from $19,200 in 2007 to $11,000 in 2013.

France: A rabbi who told police that he had been assaulted by Jihadists has been arrested on suspicion that he lied about the attack

Rabbi Tsion Saadon was taken into custody following the discovery of inconsistencies in his account of the alleged November 18, 2015 attack, which prompted passionate condemnations by police and even by President Francois Hollande. The rabbi claimed that he was stabbed by a man wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the symbol of the Islamic State terrorist group, who shouted anti-Semitic profanities at him with two other men. Saadon, a history teacher at the Marseille’s Yavne Jewish day school, displayed what appeared to be minor injuries. One of the two men whom Saadon said did not assault him physically showed him a picture of Mohammed Merah, the killer of four Jews in Toulouse in 2012, on his cell phone during the attack, he told police. But the injuries that Saadon showed police as resulting from the incident were inconsistent with the version he gave. Saadon is suspected of giving a false deposition and may be indicted.

An Egyptian court has handed down a life sentence that would be longer than most if carried out: The alleged criminal is only 4 years old

The strange case involves little Ahmed Mansour Qorany Sharara. A military court found him and 115 others guilty of killing three people and damaging state property during a protest in support of ousted President Mohamed Morsi in 2014. Ahmed would have been 16 months old at the time. After the verdict and the ensuing uproar over Ahmed's fate, the military admitted a case of mistaken identity. But Ahmed's fate is unclear, and his parents are worried because police have been inquiring about his whereabouts.

About half of gay and bisexual black men will be diagnosed with the AIDS virus in their lifetime, according to new government estimates

Overall, for the average American, the odds of an HIV infection is 1 in 99 and has been declining. But the risk varies widely for different groups. For example, the projection is 1 in 2 for gay black men but fewer than 1 in 2,500 for heterosexual white men. HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is spread mainly through sex and sharing needles for injecting drugs. In the United States, infections have long been most common in men who have sex with men. Gay and bisexual men have the highest risk, but there are racial differences within that group. For gay white men it's about 1 in 11 — a significantly smaller proportion than the estimate for blacks and Hispanics. Among heterosexuals, blacks are far more likely to be infected than other racial groups. For example, 1 in 49 black women compared to 1 in 1,083 white women.

Researchers led by Adam T. Hirsh of the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis report that black and white Americans cope with pain differently and that blacks employ pain coping strategies more frequently than whites

The IUPUI review and analysis of 19 studies is the first to examine the entire published literature and quantify the relationship between race and the use of pain-coping strategies. "Coping" is broadly defined as the use of behavioral and cognitive techniques to manage stress. Pain coping is the specific application of these techniques for pain management. Hirsh, an assistant professor of psychology, and graduate students Samantha M. Meints and Megan M. Miller conducted the evidence-based review and analysis of clinical and experimental studies that included a total of 2,719 black and 3,770 white adults. Blacks were significantly more likely to use praying and hoping as pain-coping strategies than whites. Blacks were also more likely than whites to think about their pain in a catastrophic manner. "Our findings suggest that blacks frequently use coping strategies that are associated with worse pain and functioning," said Hirsh, a clinical health psychologist. "They view themselves as helpless in the face of pain. They see the pain as magnified — the worst pain ever. They ruminate, think about the pain all the time, and it occupies a lot of their mind space. This catastrophic manner of coping is frequently labeled by health providers as a negative or maladaptive approach to pain and has been associated with poor functioning," Hirsh continued. "But it may also be a potent communication strategy — it tells others in a culture with a strong communal component that the person is really suffering and needs help. Thus, it may be helpful in some ways, such as eliciting support from other people, and unhelpful in other ways. In future studies, we will give this more nuanced investigation." Ignoring pain rather than allowing it to interfere with the task at hand, known as task persistence, was the only coping strategy employed by whites more than blacks. Numerous investigations have found that differences in coping strategies are associated with differences in pain intensity, adjustment to chronic pain, and psychological and physical functioning. For example, several of the studies reviewed by the IUPUI researchers found that ignoring strategies are associated with less pain, whereas praying and hoping and catastrophizing are associated with higher pain levels. Blacks report higher levels of pain than whites for a number of conditions including AIDS, glaucoma, arthritis, post-operative pain and lower-back pain. Blacks also experience greater pain in both clinical and experimental studies. Blacks report less-effective pain care, are unable to return to work for a longer time and have worse functional outcomes. These race differences may be partly due to differences in pain-related coping, according to Hirsh. Chronic pain is a leading cause of work disability and costs the United States more than $600 billion annually in medical treatment and lost productivity, according to the Institute of Medicine report "Relieving Pain in America." Understanding how different racial groups cope with pain may inform chronic pain care and support individually tailored treatment.

Black Lives Matter supports racial segregation

Nashville Public Library tells Black Lives Matter activists that meetings welcoming only black people are not allowed on their premises. Enraged, Black Lives Matter activists accuse the local government of "white supremacy".

Studies show that heart failure disproportionately affects African Americans, with incidences roughly double that of whites

This population is also at greater risk of developing the condition at younger ages and dying from it. Hispanics have the second-highest risk of developing heart failure and are more likely to be younger, have diabetes or high blood pressure and be overweight/obese. Studies also show that Hispanics with heart failure have higher rates of hospitalizations and readmissions for heart failure. Numerous studies point to higher rates of modifiable risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity as the reason these groups are more likely to have heart failure.

Islamic barbarism: A teenage boy has been beheaded by ISIS for simply listening to Western music

Ayham Hussein, 15, was arrested by Muslim militants after allegedly being caught enjoying pop tunes on a portable CD player in the group's Iraqi capital Mosul. He was dragged before a Islamist kangaroo court which sentenced him to death in a public execution.

New research has identified common genetic variants predominantly found in African Americans that double their risk for blood clots

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a disorder characterized by blood clots that form in the deep veins of the legs that can travel to the lungs and become fatal. Those who suffer from VTE often have one or several alterations in their DNA that affect normal function of the blood's clotting process. Genotyping individuals to identify these genetic variants can help predict their risk. Researchers reports that the one-size-fits-all approach of looking for the same variants in all populations does not serve minorities, and the scientists conclude that African Americans clearly require a specific approach when their risk for VTE is assessed. In the United States, African Americans are 30% to 60% more likely to suffer from VTE than any other U.S. population. Despite this higher incidence, well-known genetic risk factors for VTE, such as factor V Leiden, are common in whites but occur infrequently in African Americans with the disorder. This realization led researchers to hypothesize that there might be undiscovered genetic variants more specific to African Americans. "While African Americans have a high risk for VTE, previous studies have not specifically focused on this population," said Minoli Perera, PhD, of the University of Chicago. "If we are not looking for the correct genetic mutations when we run a laboratory test, we are doing a disservice to minority populations." To understand the genetic risk factors for VTE specific to African Americans, a team of researchers led by Dr. Perera conducted a genome-wide association study in which they genotyped DNA samples from 578 African Americans, 146 of whom had a history of unprovoked VTE. Next, they confirmed the variants deemed highly prevalent in the first group by genotyping the DNA of an additional group of 159 African Americans, including 94 with VTE. Based on their analysis, researchers identified a link between VTE and three variants in a chromosome associated with decreased expression of thrombomodulin, a protein that regulates clotting: rs2144940, rs2567617, and rs1998081. Investigators suggest that the presence of one of these three variants doubles the risk for VTE. Approximately 36% of African Americans have at least one of these variants. Surprisingly, these variants were found in much lower frequency in other ethnicities from previous studies. "This study not only brings us closer to understanding the cause of VTE in African Americans, it demonstrates the importance of conducting population-specific research in precision medicine," said Dr. Perera. "Our next steps will involve investigating the predictiveness of these risk factors for VTE with the goal of reducing the high prevalence and burden of VTE in this disproportionately affected population."

There are just under 37,000 children in failing schools in Alabama and more than 34,000 of those children are African American

Of course, it isn't really the schools that are failing but the students. Unfortunately, in today's politically correct climate, it is almost impossible to hold blacks accountable for their own lack of academic achievement.

According to National Science Foundation data, African Americans overall earned just 4% of doctorates awarded in 2014 but the figures are far less in the sciences and mathematics — just 1.8% in the physical sciences, 2% of the Ph.D.s in mathematics and 1.7% of those awarded in engineering

In some fields not a single doctorate was awarded to an African American.

Nevada, which is more than a quarter Latino, was one of the states worst affected by the 2008 financial meltdown, with hundreds of thousands of families unable to pay their mortgages and forced to move in a crisis that by some estimates hit minorities twice as hard as whites

Las Vegas, Nevada’s biggest city, has seen some of the country’s highest foreclosure rates since 2008, hitting No. 1 among more than 200 U.S. metro areas from 2009 to 2011, according to RealtyTrac, a provider of real estate data and analytics. Even now, the city and its surrounding area rank No. 17. Latinos make up almost 32% of Las Vegas.

What did Gandhi really think of black South Africans?

“The white race of South Africa should be the predominating race,” said Mahatma Gandhi. He also said, of himself and his followers, “We believe as much in the purity of race as” white South Africans. He called black South Africans “kaffirs,” which is South Africa’s equivalent of “n***ers,” and objected to blacks living among South African Indians: “About this mixing of the Kaffirs with the Indians, I must confess I feel strongly. I think it is very unfair to the Indian population.” He wrote that “Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilized. . . . The reader can easily imagine the plight of the poor Indian thrown into such company!”

Jewish politician being investigated for assaulting woman

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer is being investigated by the NYPD after allegedly assaulting a woman at the ritzy Plaza hotel, sources said. Sources said that after Spitzer allegedly attacked the woman at the Fifth Ave. hotel near Central Park, she tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists. Spitzer, 56, resigned in disgrace in March 2008 after he was embroiled in a prostitution scandal.

The rise of Trumpism

Charles Murray explains the rise of Donald Trump and why so many Americans are embracing his candidacy.

Pro-Hillary Clinton Super PAC is mostly backed by Jewish donors

At least eight of the top 12 donors to the pro-Clinton Priorities USA Action are Jewish — and one more is married to a Jew. Jews have contributed over half of the $41 million raised so far by the super PAC. Though the group had planned to save its money for the general election, Priorities will now spend millions in upcoming primaries to promote early voting among groups likely to back Clinton, and to run pro-Clinton ads in South Carolina. Nearly half of Clinton's financial sector donations appear to come from just two wealthy Jewish financiers, George Soros and Donald Sussman. Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire investor, and Sussman, a hedge fund manager, are just two members of an elite group of just over a dozen Jewish mega-donors who have given a total of $25 million to Priorities USA Action, more than half of what the group has raised so far this cycle. Clinton has helped Priorities raise money and has met with the group’s donors. Those donors are overwhelmingly Jewish. Other major Jewish donors to the group include “Power Rangers” super-mogul Haim Saban, who has given $2.5 million (his wife Cheryl, who is not Jewish, gave another $2.5 million); Herbert Sandler, former owner of a large savings & loan association called Golden West, who gave $1.5 million, and Slim-Fast billionaire S. Daniel Abraham, who gave $1 million. Also on the 2015 Priorities USA Action donor rolls are Jewish Hollywood figures Steven Spielberg, who gave $1 million, his former DreamWorks partner Jeffrey Katzenberg, who gave $1 million, and Star Wars director J.J. Abrams, who gave $500,000. (Abrams’s wife Kathleen McGrath gave another $500,000.) Since its creation in 2011, Priorities USA Action has been something of a Jewish shop. Among its largest donors in the 2012 cycle were Katzenberg, Abraham, Spielberg, and Qualcomm founder Irwin M. Jacobs.

Over the past decade, according to FBI data, 40% of cop killers have been black

Police officers are killed by blacks at a rate 2.5 times higher than the rate at which blacks are killed by police.

Researchers have found that despite the complexity of the US population, individuals know their ancestral origins, and that self-reported ethnicity and race is a reliable indicator of genetic ancestry

In one genetic study, 98.7% turned out on their DNA test to be primarily what they self-identified as and among those who identified as non-Hispanic white, 427 out of 430 had their self-identifications confirmed by the genome analysis as of European ancestry.

The first study to look at dementia risk in a population representing the diversity of the United States finds dementia incidence to be highest in African Americans and lowest in Asian Americans

The rate of occurrence of dementia in African Americans was found to be 65% higher than Asian Americans. The scientists compared dementia incidence across six racial and ethnic groups – Whites, Asian-Americans, Latinos, African Americans, American Indians/Alaskan Natives, and Pacific Islanders. "Most research on disparities in dementia includes only one to two racial and ethnic groups, for example only Whites and African Americans," said study first author Elizabeth Rose Mayeda, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California, San Francisco in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. "Our study is the only work that compares dementia for these six racial and ethnic groups representing the aging demographic of the United States in a single study population. It is also the first study to look at incidence of dementia in Pacific Islanders and American Indians." The researchers found that dementia incidence over the 14-year study period ranged from an average annual rate of 26.6 cases of dementia per 1,000 people for African-Americans, and 22.2 cases per 1,000 people for American Indians/Alaskan Natives, to 15.2 cases per 1,000 people for Asian-Americans. In between were Latinos and Pacific Islanders with an average annual rate of 19.6 cases per 1,000 people, and whites with 19.3 per 1,000. Using the observed dementia incidence rates and a widely accepted method of calculating a person's lifetime risk for developing a disease, the researchers estimated the percentage of individuals free of dementia before age 65 in each racial and ethnic group who can expect to be diagnosed with dementia over the next 25 years. The projections were 38% of African Americans, 35% of American Indians/Alaskan Natives, 32% of Latinos, 25% of Pacific Islanders, 30% of Whites, and 28% of Asian Americans.

An Iraqi migrant raped a 10-year-old boy at a swimming pool in Vienna and told police that it was a "sexual emergency" because he hadn't had sex in months

A 10-year-old boy was so brutally raped by an Iraqi migrant in a swimming pool cubicle that he had to be hospitalized for his injuries. A lifeguard immediately called an ambulance after the boy went to him in floods of tears, while the Iraqi was entertaining himself by repeatedly jumping off the three-meter diving board. Police arrested him on the spot at the pool in Vienna, and during an interrogation, he told them that it was a "sexual emergency" as he had not had sex in four months. The migrant, who had entered the country through the Balkans on September 5, 2015 official records show, said that he could not help himself as he had an "excess sexual energy".

DNA evidence lifted from the ancient bones and teeth of people who lived in Europe from the Late Pleistocene to the early Holocene - spanning almost 30,000 years of European prehistory - has offered some surprises

Perhaps most notably, the evidence shows a major shift in the population around 14,500 years ago, during a period of severe climatic instability. "We uncovered a completely unknown chapter of human history: a major population turnover in Europe at the end of the last Ice Age," says leading author Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany. The researchers pieced this missing history together by reconstructing the mitochondrial genomes of 35 hunter-gatherer individuals who lived in Italy, Germany, Belgium, France, the Czech Republic, and Romania from 35,000 to 7,000 years ago. Mitochondria are organelles within cells that carry their own DNA and can be used to infer patterns of maternal ancestry. "There has been a real lack of genetic data from this time period, so consequently we knew very little about the population structure or dynamics of the first modern humans in Europe," Krause says. The new data show that the mitochondrial DNA of three individuals who lived in present-day Belgium and France before the coldest period in the last Ice Age - the Last Glacial Maximum - belonged to haplogroup M. This is remarkable because the M haplogroup is effectively absent in modern Europeans but is extremely common in modern Asian, Australasian, and Native American populations. The absence of the M haplogroup and its presence in other parts of the world had previously led to the argument that non-African people dispersed on multiple occasions to spread across Eurasia and Australasia. The researchers say that the discovery of this maternal lineage in Europe in the ancient past now suggests instead that all non-Africans dispersed rapidly from a single population, at a time they place around 50,000 years ago. Then, at some later stage, the M haplogroup was apparently lost from Europe. "When the Last Glacial Maximum began around 25,000 years ago, hunter-gatherer populations retreated south to a number of putative refugia, and the consequent genetic bottleneck probably resulted in the loss of this haplogroup," explains first author of the study Cosimo Posth of Germany's University of Tübingen. The researchers say that their biggest surprise, however, was evidence of a major turnover of the population in Europe around 14,500 years ago, as the climate began to warm. "Our model suggests that during this period of climatic upheaval, the descendants of the hunter-gatherers who survived through the Last Glacial Maximum were largely replaced by a population from another source," says Adam Powell, another senior author at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. The researchers say that the next step is to construct a more comprehensive picture of the past by analyzing the complete genomes of these ancient individuals along with additional specimens representing more times and places.

Police shootings account for a much smaller share of homicides in the black community than in other communities: 4% of black homicide victims are killed by the police, compared with 12% of white and Hispanic homicide victims

Though they made up 15% of the population, in America’s 75 largest counties in 2009, blacks constituted 62% of all robbery defendants, 57% of all murder defendants and 45% of all assault defendants. In New York City in 2014, blacks committed 75% of shootings and 70% of robberies — as reported by the victims of and witnesses to those crimes — but represented only 23% of the population. In contrast, whites committed less than 2% of shootings and 4% of robberies in New York City in 2014, though they are 34% of the city’s population.

A new report shows that Chicago, New York and Los Angeles have the highest number of unemployed blacks and Hispanics in the entire United States

The report cited that 47% of young black men, ages 20-24 years old, and 20% of young Hispanic men are jobless and not in school in Chicago. In New York, 31% of black men and 27% of Hispanics are unemployed and out of school. In Los Angeles, 31% of black men and 14% of Hispanics are in the same condition. Among teenagers in Chicago, ages 16 to 19 years old, 88% of blacks and 85% of Hispanics are not working. It is interesting that all three of these cities have Democratic mayors.

Caracas, Venezuela, is the murder capital of the world

A shred of good news for the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula: It had been named the world's most violent city four straight years by the Mexico Citizens Council for Public Security, but it moves to No. 2 behind Caracas in 2015. Latin America on the whole has little to celebrate, with 41 cities on the top-50 list, based on homicides per 100,000 residents. Brazil alone has 21 entrants, while the United States has four, with St. Louis ranking highest at 15th, followed by Baltimore (19), Detroit (28), and New Orleans (32). The four US cities have large black populations.

North Korea and Somalia are the most corrupt countries in the world

Denmark, Finland and Sweden are the least corrupt. European countries are generally less corrupt than non-European nations.

A black man being quizzed over the brutal rape and murder of an American tourist in Grenada had only been released from prison in December 2015 after being jailed for child rape

Police sources on the Caribbean island said that David Benjamin was freed in December 2015 after serving 15 years. He is suspected of killing Jessica Colker who died from extensive skull fracture and asphyxia, as she walked along a deserted beach with her husband on the first day of her vacation, autopsy results revealed. Grenada's criminal courts have been dominated by sexual offenses, accounting for more than one-third of all the cases before the High Court for trial.

Danish authorities have warned hospitals over possible outbreak of infectious diseases as several cases of diphtheria, tuberculosis and malaria carried by the refugees have already been registered

“The infection can be very dangerous if one isn’t vaccinated against it. The dangerous type is very rare and we last saw it in Denmark in 1998,” Kurt Fuursted, spokesperson for the Danish State Serum Institute (SSI) said referring to the potential return of diphtheria. This disease was last diagnosed in Denmark about 20 years ago. “There is no doubt that infectious diseases are coming in with the refugees that we aren’t used to. There have been discussions on whether all refugees who come to Denmark should be screened," he added. At present Denmark doesn’t follow the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation to vaccinate incoming migrants, unlike some other European countries. “Refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants should be vaccinated without unnecessary delay according to the immunization schedule of the country in which they intend to stay for more than a week,” reads a joint WHO-UNHCR-UNICEF guidance on general principles of vaccination of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants in Europe, published on November 23, 2015. It urges countries to provide migrants access to the “full vaccination schedule.” The immigration officials and the Danish Health and Medicines Authority, a supreme health care authority in Denmark, are expected to review screening policy, according to Health Minister Sophie Lunde. In recent months, Denmark has begun to tighten the screws in an effort to curb the refugee influx. The Danish Parliament is set to vote on a bill proposing to strip refugees of valuables, including cash and jewelry, to cover the costs that the country bears in connection with their stay. It would allow authorities to claim individual items valued at more than 10,000 kroner (US$1,450).

The present-day English owe about a third of their ancestry to the Anglo-Saxons, according to a new study

Scientists have sequenced genomes from 10 skeletons unearthed in eastern England and dating from the Iron Age through to the Anglo-Saxon period. Many of the Anglo-Saxon samples appeared closer to modern Dutch and Danish people than the Iron Age Britons did. According to historical accounts and archaeology, the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain from continental Europe in the 5th Century AD. They brought with them a new culture, social structure and language. Dr Stephan Schiffels of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany sequenced genomes of human remains from Hinxton, Saffron Walden, Linton and Oakington - all of which are near Cambridge. The burials fall into three different age categories: Iron Age, early Anglo-Saxon and Middle Anglo-Saxon. In order to disentangle the Anglo-Saxon signal from the indigenous British genetic background, the researchers looked at many rare mutations across the whole genome. "We found that these rare mutations were the key to studying historical samples. We could compare our ancient samples with modern samples in an improved way," Dr Schiffels said. "We could look at these in a very large sample of modern Europeans. For example, we studied low frequency mutations that must have occurred in the ancestors of the Dutch over the last few thousand years. We found that these mutations were shared with the Anglo-Saxon immigrants at a factor of two more than they are with the indigenous Celtic people. These rare mutations are found only with whole genome sequencing." From there, the scientists could track the contribution made by those Anglo-Saxon invaders to modern British populations. They found that on average 25%-40% of the ancestry of modern Britons is attributable to the Anglo-Saxons. But the fraction of Saxon ancestry is greater in eastern England, closest to where the invaders settled. Even traditionally Celtic populations, such as the Welsh and Scottish show some Anglo-Saxon-like ancestry - even though it is typically lower than that of eastern England.

Most Latinos who could vote in the last three national elections chose not to

Turnout was just under 50% in 2008, and fell to 48% in 2012. It dropped to 27% in the 2014 midterms, the lowest rate ever recorded for Latinos. The lack of engagement is not new; Latino voter turnout has lagged behind that of whites and blacks for decades. Asian-American voter turnout has also been below black and white turnout since at least 1992; it was even with Latino voter turnout in 2012.

More than one-third of Jewish-Israelis see their Arab fellow citizens as “enemies,” and only 20% said that they consider Arab-Israelis their “equals,” a new poll has found

The poll also found that 44% of Jewish-Israelis see Arab-Israelis as “people who needed to be respected but also treated with suspicion.”

A new genetic study suggests that the first migrant Jew entered the Indian subcontinent at Cochin in Kerala in the sixth century, about 1,500 years ago

India has three distinct Jewish populations namely, the Jews of Cochin, the Bene Israel of Mumbai and the Baghdadi Jews in Kolkata. Using genetic data and DNA analysis, scientists traced the ancestry of Indian Jews to the Middle East. However, in what has been called a breakthrough study, scientists have found that Indian Jews are a unique blend of South Asian and Middle Eastern genetic lineage. "The expansion of the Indian Jews from the Middle East was followed by extensive admixture and assimilation with local populations," Dr Kumarasamy Thangaraj at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad said. "The initial admixture with local Indian populations, followed by strict endogamy has made Indian Jews a unique population," explained co-researcher Dr Gyaneshwer Chaubey. The research team analyzed the DNA of Indian Jews using high-resolution genetic markers and compared them with native Indians and people from the rest of the world. Thangaraj said that Indian Jews "overwhelmingly" carry South Asian genetic lineage. "The analyses of autosomal data revealed a high level of heterogeneity among the Indian Jewish groups and their closeness with the local neighbors," he said. "However, sharing of specific maternally-inherited mtDNA and paternally inherited Y-chromosomal haplogroups between all the studied Indian Jews and lack of them among other local Indians can be seen as a remnant of a shared ancestry with the Middle Eastern populations," Thangaraj added.

Anti-Christian graffiti has been sprayed on a wall of a Jerusalem abbey built where the mother of Jesus died in an incident similar to previous acts blamed on Jewish extremists

The graffiti written in Hebrew on an outside wall of the Dormition Abbey included phrases such as “kill the pagans” and “death to the Christian unbelievers, enemies of Israel”, a spokesman for the Catholic Church in the Holy Land said. Police said that the graffiti had been discovered during a patrol and an investigation had been opened. The Benedictine abbey is located on Mount Zion across from east Jerusalem’s Old City and next to the site where Jesus’s Last Supper occurred. It was previously hit in 2014, when furniture and wooden crosses were burned. “This time it amounts to a real call to murder Christians,” said church spokesman Wadi Abu Nassar. Jewish extremists have targeted Palestinians, Christians and even Israeli military property in “price-tag” attacks — a term that indicates there is a price to be paid for moves against Jewish settlers. Recently, two Israelis, including a minor, were charged over the 2014 incident at the Dormition Abbey as well as an arson attack at the Church of the Multiplication on the Sea of Galilee. That church is located where Jesus performed the miracle of loaves and fishes. The most prominent suspected Jewish extremist attack recently was the July 2015 firebombing of a Palestinian home in the West Bank that killed a toddler along with his mother and father. On January 3, 2016 an Israeli court charged two suspected Jewish extremists over the firebombing, including the minor accused in the 2014 arson at the Dormition Abbey. Vatican efforts to negotiate greater rights at the neighboring Upper Room, where the Last Supper occurred, have sparked opposition from nationalist and Orthodox Jews, who revere part of the building as the tomb of King David.

Muslim family values: Pakistani lawmakers had to withdraw a bill aimed at curbing the practice of child marriage after a prominent religious body declared the legislation un-Islamic

The bill, which proposed raising the marriage age for females from 16 to 18, also called for harsher penalties for those who would arrange marriages involving children. Despite the laws in place, child marriages, particularly involving young female brides, are common in parts of the country. It's estimated that some 20% of girls in the country are married before they turn 18. But the Council of Islamic Ideology, a constitutional body which gives advice to parliament on the compatibility of laws with Sharia, appeared to slap down the legislation after deeming it "un-Islamic" and "blasphemous." It had already handed down a similar ruling in 2014. The council has garnered opprobrium in the past. In 2013, "it suggested making DNA inadmissible evidence in rape cases, instead calling for the revival of an Islamic law that makes it mandatory for a survivor to provide four witnesses to back their claims." Girls Not Brides, an international coalition of civil society organizations working against child marriage, cited this religious body as an obstacle toward reform. A number of provinces in Pakistan have pushed for legislation cracking down on child marriages, but implementing the law is more difficult. Muslim clerics on the council object to minimum age requirements, arguing instead that an individual can marry once reaching puberty, which can be as early as the age of 9.

Three teenagers of North African origin have been arrested in connection to the assault of two transgender women in the German city of Dortmund

The two victims said that they were verbally abused and threatened with stones by the men near the city's main train station. The attackers said that they were going to stone the two women before a police officer intervened. The men spoke to them in Arabic and said that they needed to stone such people.

Jewish immigration to Israel from western Europe has reached an all-time high as a result of a rise in attacks, a leading non-profit group has said

The Jewish Agency, which works closely with the Israeli government and acts as a link to Jews around the world, said that 9,880 Jews from Western Europe immigrated to Israel in 2015 – the highest annual number ever. The figure is more than 10% over the previous year and more than double the 2013 level. The vast majority, close to 8,000, came from France, where a rise in attacks has shattered the sense of security of the world’s third-largest Jewish population. Close to 800 Jews emigrated from Britain in 2015. Italy and Belgium were next on the list. Jews have been targeted in Belgium, Denmark and other European countries, but France has seen the worst of it. Jews have increasingly reported assaults and intimidation, mostly from Muslim extremists. Some attacks have been linked to anger at Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. France’s Jewish community of some 500,000 is the largest in Europe. Recently, a 15-year-old Turkish Kurd attacked and wounded a Jewish teacher on a street in Marseille, France’s second-largest city, then told police after his arrest that he acted in the name of the Islamic State group.

Milwaukee finished 2015 with an unemployment rate of approximately 20% for their black population

This is almost four times as high as the white unemployment rate for the city and the state of Wisconsin. This means that Milwaukee leads in murders and mayhem per capita, with a large number of these crimes occurring in mainly black neighborhoods, the same neighborhoods with the worst unemployment rates in the state. From 2011-2012, Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) posted an average high school suspension rate of 33%, which is more than three times the national average of 10%. The district suspended 43% of black students, 18% of Latino students and 16% of white students. According to state data, from 2012-2013, MPS suspended 26% of black high school students. From 2007-2008, a shockingly large number of black students were suspended — 56%. In addition, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee report released in 2013 found that Wisconsin has the highest incarceration rates for black males in the United States. The report states “records show incarceration rates at epidemic levels for African American males in Milwaukee County. Over half of African American men in their 30s and half of men in their early 40s have been incarcerated in state correctional facilities.” The median annual income of black households in the state is just $26,053, which is equal to just 46.5% the median income of white Wisconsin households of $56,083. With a white jobless rate of 4.4%, the state’s job market is relatively strong for the white population. For black Wisconsin residents, however, the unemployment rate is more than five times higher times higher, at 20.8%.

Muslim crime: According to the Cologne police, 40% of the city’s immigrants from northern Africa become delinquent, mainly for theft, within their first year in Germany

How is Germany going to deal with the problems caused by Muslims?

A black African illegal immigrant has confessed to killing American artist Ashley Olsen in her Italian apartment, who was punched and strangled with a USB cord in what police say was a jealous drug-fueled frenzy

Cheik Tidiane Diaw, 25, told officers that he strangled Olsen after the pair had sex when she told him that he had to leave because her boyfriend was coming back. The Senegalese illegal alien was caught because of DNA evidence from a used condom and cigarette found in the toilet - which he had tried to flush away unsuccessfully. Italian police said that they had to swoop on him quickly because they feared he was about to flee Florence. The chief prosecutor said that the murderer had initially given a false alibi to police when he was first questioned. He was freed but then re-arrested when his DNA was matched. Olsen, whose funeral will be held in the Italian city, suffered two fractures to the skull and was strangled with a USB cord.

The achievement gap between white students and black students has barely narrowed over the last 50 years, despite nearly a half century of supposed progress in race relations and an increased emphasis on closing such academic discrepancies between groups of students

In the 1960's, in both math and reading, the average black student in grade 12 placed in the 13th percentile of the score distribution, meaning that 87% of white students in grade 12 scored ahead of the average black 12th grader. Fifty years later, that gap has barely narrowed. The average 12th grade black student, according to data from the 2013 National Assessment for Educational Progress, placed only in the 19th percentile. In reading, the achievement gap has improved slightly more than in math, but after a half century, the average black student scores at just the 22nd percentile. If the achievement gaps continue close at such an incremental rate, it will be roughly two and a half centuries before the black-white math gap closes and over one and a half centuries until the reading gap closes.

Police are investigating reports that a three-year-old boy was raped in an asylum center in Norway

The rape of the child happened on January 6, 2016 at the Forus Akuttinnkvartering center in Stavanger. It is thought to have happened in a communal area by multiple perpetrators. It is believed that the boy was taken to a rape crisis clinic with his mother. Several people have been questioned by the police, including a minor. There are currently 781 asylum seekers at the Forus center.

Violent crime and diversity

The 10 safest states in terms of violent crime are Vermont (99.3 incidents per 100,000 residents), Maine (127.8), Wyoming (195.5), New Hampshire (196.1), Virginia (196.2), Kentucky (211.6), Idaho (212.2), Utah (215.6), Rhode Island (219.2) and Minnesota (229.1). The 10 most dangerous states, based on reported violent crimes per 100,000 residents are Alaska (635.8 crimes per 100,000), Nevada (635.6), Tennessee (608), New Mexico (597), Florida (540.5), Louisiana (515), South Carolina (498), Delaware (489), Arkansas (480) and Maryland (446). The safest states tend to be less diverse than the most dangerous ones.

Black radio show host Tavis Smiley says that Barack Obama has failed black Americans as president

He says that Obama has failed black Americans on every leading economic issue. Of course, Obama has not been great for any other group except Muslims and illegal immigrants from Latin America.

France: A Muslim teenager armed with a machete slashed a Jewish teacher in a Marseille street, invoking the Islamic State group and saying that he had also planned to go after police

The 15-year-old Turkish Kurd was arrested soon after wordlessly attacking the teacher, who was injured in the attack in central Marseille, said Brice Robin, the Marseille prosecutor. The teen invoked Allah and the extremist group saying that "the Muslims of France dishonor Islam and the French army protects Jews". The anti-terrorism section of the Paris prosecutor's office has taken over the investigation. The Muslim teen attacked the teacher from behind, slashing him in the shoulder, and then went after him again as he tried to flee. The attack comes days after a Muslim armed with a butcher's knife was shot dead after he went after police in central Paris. That man's identity has not yet been confirmed but German authorities say that he had lived at a shelter for asylum-seekers in the western city of Recklinghausen. Both incidents coincide with high tension in France, which recently marked a year since the January 2015 Islamist attacks against the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket that left 17 people dead. Recently, two churches were burned.

Ferguson Effect: Woman, 18, raped by five black men in Brooklyn playground after one pulled a gun on her father and told him to "get the f*** out of here" as questions are raised over NYPD's slow response

Police are hunting five black men who took turns raping a young woman after pointing a gun at her father and ordering him to leave a playground in Brooklyn. The 18-year-old victim had been inside Osborne Park in Brownsville, New York, with her father when five black men accosted the pair. The police department has come under fire and asked to investigate why police were so slow to respond to the incident. Angry neighbors blasted police for not patrolling the area, which they say has no working lampposts and is pitch black at night.

Neanderthals and allergies: A new genetic study has revealed that the genes inherited by modern humans from Neanderthals after our species interbred 50,000 years ago play a key role in our modern immune system

While these genetic variations have increased the ability of those who have them to ward off infection, they have also left large numbers of people more prone to allergies. Between 1% and 6% of the DNA carried by people from Europe, and much of Asia, has been inherited from Neanderthals or their ancient early human cousins the Denisovans. Indeed, people in East Asia carry up to 15% to 30% more of this prehistoric early human DNA than Europeans. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have now identified three distinct genetic variations from Neanderthals that play a role in allergies. These genes produce proteins known as Toll-like receptors, which are an important part of the innate immune system that provides the first line of defence against infections. However, faults in this immune response also lead to allergies as immune cells react to non-harmful substances such as pollen, food, dust or animal hair. The researchers said that three Neanderthals genes which produce proteins called TLR 6, TLR1 and TLR10 all seem to be associated with, and increase, allergic disease in large numbers of people.

Police in Germany are investigating an alarming series of sexual assaults on women trying to celebrate the New Year by large groups of single men of Arab or North African appearance

Authorities in the city of Cologne are to hold a crisis meeting after police described a group of some 1,000 men who took over the area around the main station on New Year’s Eve. Women were robbed, groped, and had their underwear torn from their bodies, while couples had fireworks thrown at them. Police have received 90 criminal complaints, around a quarter of them for sexual assault, including one case of rape. Police in Hamburg say that there was a series of similar incidents in the city’s Reeperbahn red-light area. Witnesses described groups of five to 15 men of who hunted women in the streets. Although those behind the incidents have not been identified, they have been widely linked with the large influx of asylum-seekers to Germany. One MP from Angela Merkel’s party called for the numbers of refugees in the country to be reduced in the light of the attacks. “It can’t go on like this,” Steffen Bilger wrote on Twitter. “Urgently needed: reduction of influx, secure borders, intensifying of deportations and meaningful justice. #Cologne.” There were allegations of a police cover-up on social media after it took five days for the scale of the incidents to emerge, with some claiming that the authorities wanted to hide the ethnicity of the perpetrators to avoid social tensions. An unidentified male witness said that he and his girlfriend had been surrounded in Cologne by drunk and aggressive men who threatened them and groped her. “They weren’t of European appearance,” he said. “The crimes were committed by a group of people who from appearance were largely from the North African or Arab world,” Wolfgang Albers, the Cologne police chief, said.

African American men with prostate cancer have significantly lower PSA density than white men

More evidence that racial differences are biological not social.

A black Marine has been arrested for murdering a 20-year-old sorority sister after harassing her and her friends on New Year's Eve

Eric Johnson, of Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron-1, was arrested at his air base in Yuma, Arizona, five days after University of North Texas student Sara Mutschlechner was fatally shot in the head as she drove three friends home from a party. Shots were fired from a black SUV that pulled up beside her as she was driving through Denton, Texas, in the early hours of New Year's Day 2016. Sara's group had been at a nearby party on Crisoforo Drive which hosted a number of musicians, including local rap collective The Daytona Boyz. They left shortly before 2am. Johnson, whose street name is "Santana Sage", was also at the party. He left at around the same time with two of the Dayonta Boyz - known as Tay-K and F***PimpyZ - and two other African American males in a black SUV. Both vehicles were driving through Denton when Johnson's black SUV pulled up alongside Sara's sedan. Members of Johnson's group started shouting that they wanted to "f***" the two girls in the car. One of Sara's two male friends hit back that the comments were inappropriate. One of the black men in the SUV told him that he would "beat his ass" and another said, "I'll shoot your ass", and displayed a handgun. Sara's party did not make derogatory comments in response and drove off. But as they went through the intersection at West University Drive, shots were fired from the SUV and Sara was hit in the head. The 20-year-old immediately lost control of her sedan, veered to the right into a parked car then crashed into an electrical pole. She was taken to hospital and treated for her wounds but died later on New Year's Day 2016.

A surge of El Salvador gang violence in 2015 has pushed up homicides in the country by about 70% from 2014, making it a top contender to overtake Honduras as the world's most murderous nation

But Venezuela's homicide rate has also risen in 2015, putting it on track to perhaps equal El Salvador. Miguel Fortin, head of the National Forensics Institute in El Salvador, said that 2015 will end with about 6,650 Salvadorans murdered, compared to 3,912 in 2014. With a population of some 6.4 million people, that would equate to around 104 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, above the rate last registered in neighboring Honduras, which was the most deadly country in 2012. "This has been the most violent year in El Salvador in terms of murders," Fortin said. "It's a real pandemic." The death toll is the worst registered in El Salvador since the end of a bloody 1980-1992 civil war that is estimated to have claimed the lives of around 75,000 people. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan Violence Observatory estimates that 27,875 killings occurred in 2015, pushing the homicide rate in Venezuela up to 90 per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2014, the observatory counted 82 killings per 100,000 people, while in 1998 the rate was only 19 per 100,000. According to the most recent United Nations Global Study on Homicide, published in 2014, Honduras had 90.4 murders per 100,000 in 2012 when it topped the list. Venezuela had the second highest rate of 53.7 and El Salvador had 41.2. El Salvador's police blame the spike in murders on gang violence, which included dozens of attacks on police officers as well as brutal assaults on bus drivers in the summer. Violence has risen steadily in El Salvador since a 2012 truce between the country's two main gangs - the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 - began unraveling in 2014.

Less than 3% of people in Britain are black, but blacks are 10% of inmates in British prisons

As in the United States, being truthful about black criminality will get you into trouble in Britain.

The mayor of a city south of Mexico's capital has been shot to death less than a day after taking office

Gunmen opened fire on Mayor Gisela Mota at her house in the city of Temixco, said the government of Morelos state, where Temixco is located. Two presumed assailants were killed and three others detained following a pursuit, said Morelos security commissioner Jesus Alberto Capella. He said that the suspects fired on federal police and soldiers from a vehicle. On his Twitter account, Morelos Gov. Graco Ramirez attributed Mota's killing to organized crime, without citing a particular drug cartel or gang. Cartels seeking to control communities and towns have often targeted local officials and mayors in Mexico. Mota's leftist Democratic Revolution Party released a statement describing her as "a strong and brave woman who on taking office as mayor, declared that her fight against crime would be frontal and direct." Temixco is a city of about 100,000 people neighboring Cuernavaca, a resort and industrial city which has been suffering kidnappings and extortion linked to organized crime groups. Though Cuernavaca is the capital of Morelos, Temixco is the seat of several state institutions including the Public Security Commission, which coordinates state and local police forces. Morelos also neighbors drug cartel-plagued Guerrero state. Mota, who had been a federal congresswoman, was sworn into office on New Year's Day 2016. She was killed the following day. Morelos Gov. Ramirez vowed that there "would be no impunity" in her killing and promised that state officials would not cede to what he described as a "challenge from criminals." Federal and state forces are deployed in Cuernavaca and municipalities near the Guerrero state border in what is called operation "Delta." Capella did not provide more details about the attack on Mota, but said that when the suspects were detained, authorities found a 9-millimeter gun, an Uzi, ski masks and an SUV with Mexico State license plates. Morelos Attorney General Javier Perez Duron said that the detained suspects have been tied to other crimes, but declined to provide more details.

A New York-based ultra-Orthodox rabbi who has posted thousands of popular outreach lectures online said in a lecture that only about 1 million halachic Jews, meaning people born of a Jewish mother, perished in the Holocaust

In a video, Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi cited high assimilation rates in Europe before World War II to make his claim that 80% of those identified as Jews killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust were not Jewish according to halakha, or Jewish law.

Why are there no Islamic terrorists in Japan?

Because Japan has very few Muslims. In Japan there are 127 million residents, but only ten thousand Muslims, less than one hundredth of a percent. The Japanese don't like Muslims and - unlike Europeans - are not embarrassed by this fact.

Black Muslim crime: Justice Department officials have announced that they have thwarted a Rochester man's plans to kill New Year's Eve revelers in the name of ISIS at an upstate New York bar and restaurant

Emanuel Lutchman, 25, was charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. "This New Year's Eve prosecution underscores the threat of ISIL even in upstate New York but demonstrates our determination to immediately stop any who would cause harm in its name," said William Hochul Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York. Lutchman received direction from an ISIS member overseas and planned to attack revelers in order to join ISIS. According to a criminal complaint, Lutchman had been in contact with a man overseas who claimed to be in ISIS. Lutchman told him that he wanted to come to Syria but was informed he couldn't come now and that he should kill Americans to prove himself, according to the document. Lutchman met with a confidential source for the Justice Department. The source said that Lutchman wanted to sneak a bomb into the restaurant and kidnap some people to kill. He and the source went to a Walmart and bought two ski masks, two knives, a machete, zip ties, duct tape, ammonia and rubber gloves. "The operation is a go. We just gotta do it, man," Lutchman told the source.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aren't the Zionists screwing us already?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Obama, Muslims and the Democrats war on free speech

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

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

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