A 36-year-old Hispanic has been charged with trying to rape a 7-year-old girl after he was caught by the child's mother, according to court records

Nolvis Garcia-Rivera was found suffering from injuries and appeared to have been assaulted. Police then learned that he was a suspect in a sexual assault that had happened a short time earlier, according to court records. Police do not know who assaulted Garcia-Rivera, but said it may have been bystanders who learned of the sexual assault. According to court records, the child's mother told police that she was in the front of her home when she saw a man on top of her daughter with his pants down around his ankles and his shirt off. The girl was taken to St. Luke's Hospital-Fountain Hill. She told police that Garcia-Rivera removed some of her clothing, got on top of her and started to rape her. Garcia-Rivera told the girl that if she screamed he would kill her. The mother then walked in on the attempted rape, police said. She identified Garcia-Rivera as the attacker. He was charged with attempted rape, aggravated indecent assault, indecent exposure, indecent assault, corruption of minors and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was sent to Lehigh County Prison under $250,000 bail.

A black man has been arrested after he tried to saw a cast off his son's hand and severely cut the teenager, according to a Coral Springs police affidavit

Lawrence Roberts, 33, has been arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse, a first-degree felony, punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Police said that his 15-year-old son needed emergency surgery. According to the affidavit, Roberts arrived at the home where the son lives and then retrieved a 10-inch circular saw, usually used to cut wood, from his Chevrolet Silverado and tried to cut the purple cast off his son's right hand, the affidavit said. "The defendant cut off the top of the victim's right thumb, [and] the middle of the victim's right index finger was almost cut entirely off," the affidavit said. Roberts' son, according to the affidavit, also received a 3-inch-long cut on his right hand, between his thumb and index finger. Rescuers took the teenager to Coral Springs Medical Center. He was later taken to Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale for emergency surgery to repair his thumb. His cast was removed by medical personnel at the hospital, said police spokesman Sgt. Dave Kirkland. Roberts provided a statement to investigators saying that his son's hand was cut while he tried to remove the cast with the circular saw. He did not explain why he used the saw or why he tried to remove the cast, Kirkland said. Roberts was released on $7,500 bond.

A 911 call reporting the drive-by shooting of a Chicago woman was made by her black boyfriend who is now being charged with her murder

Devin Bickham Sr., 39, his son, Devin Bickham Jr., 20, and a third man, Cardell Taylor, 35, have all been charged with first-degree murder for orchestrating and committing the murder of Chervon Alexander, Bickham Sr.'s girlfriend. Bickham Sr. was a former North Chicago police officer, according to local reports. Recently, he pulled into a River Forest parking lot that authorities say was darkened after an electrical outage. The State Attorney's office said that he and Alexander were in a romantic relationship. According to local police Bickham was married. "Bickham Sr. thought that the victim was interfering with his life and wanted her out of the way, allegedly," said Chief Deputy Craig Rutz from the River Forest police department. "[Alexander] had told others that she was going to be getting married in August." According to Rutz, on the night of the drive-by, "two people stopped their car on Division Street right in front of victim's car. One walked through the bushes and shot [Alexander]." Andy Conklin from the State's Attorney's office said that Taylor shot Alexander with a hand gun several times in the mouth, shoulder and chest.

A black man claiming to have links to Al Qaeda will go on trial for shooting dead a soldier and wounding another

Abdulhakim Muhammad opened fire on an Army recruiting station in Arkansas in 2009, declaring the shooting was in retaliation for U.S. military action in the Middle East. But prosecutors say that the slaying was not terrorism - it was a drive-by shooting committed by a thug with a gun. When Muhammad goes on a state trial in Little Rock, he won't face any federal or terrorism charges. Instead he is facing a capital murder charge, which he complains, likens him to a common criminal. With no grand stage for his political beliefs, and if he is convicted by the state rather than the federal government, he faces a much greater chance of execution. The United States has put three people to death since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988. Arkansas executed 27 people in that time. Muhammad has confessed to The Associated Press, to the judge overseeing his case and to authorities, describing what he'd done and why. He tried to plead guilty in court, but Arkansas law doesn't allow that in death penalty cases, lest the state grant a kind of suicide request. The judge informed Muhammad that he would have to stand trial. Muhammad and other witnesses said that he drove up to a military recruiting station in Little Rock on June 1, 2009, where two soldiers - Army Pvt. William Andrew Long, 23, and Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, then 18 - were smoking cigarettes outside. They'd recently completed basic training and had volunteered to work as recruiters. Neither had seen combat. Muhammad fired an assault rifle, killing Long and wounding Ezeagwula. Police stopped Muhammad moments later on a highway that would have taken him to Memphis, Tennessee, where he lived until he moved to Little Rock. Officers found more weapons and ammunition in his truck, along with a stash of bottled water and food. He told authorities that he would have killed more soldiers if he could have. Muhammad was born Carlos Bledsoe but changed his name after converting to Islam. In 2007, he traveled to Yemen, where Islamic extremists are known to seek sanctuary. He overstayed his visa and was deported back to the United States. It's not clear whether Muhammad actually has links to terrorist groups or just says he does.

Black NFL star Cedric Benson has been arrested for assault after attacking a man who lived with him

The 28-year-old running back, who has led the Cincinnati Bengals in rushing for the past three seasons, was arrested in downtown Austin, Texas. He has been released after paying a $10,000 bail bond. It is the second year in a row that Benson has run into trouble in his home state. In summer 2010, he was arrested over a bar fight in the same town. Roger Wade, a spokesman for the Travis County sheriff, said that Benson was arrested on a misdemeanour count of assault with bodily injury with family violence.

A rabbi and his wife kidnapped an Israeli man, beat him up and threatened to bury him alive if he didn't give his wife a religious divorce

David and Judy Wax are accused of luring Yisrael Meir Briskman to their comfortable suburban home, where they handcuffed him, blindfolded him and threatened to have his father killed. The couple, who have eight children, have been charged in federal court after they surrendered to the FBI. At one point Wax, 49, showed Briskman a body bag and told him that if he did not comply, he would be buried alive in the Pocono Mountains, according to court documents. Then he laid the body bag on top of 36-year-old Briskman. If found guilty of kidnapping the pair could be sentenced to life in prison. The couple are not thought to be related to Briskman, and police said that they had no conclusive motive for the kidnapping. Briskman had fled Israel two years previously, after refusing to grant his wife a get, an Orthodox Jewish divorce document which allows a woman to remarry.

A black man has been charged with illegal burning after he tried to cremate his dog but ended up setting his house on fire

Charles Harris's property suffered extensive damage from the fire, smoke, and the water to put the blaze out and is currently uninhabitable. Neighbors said that Harris's dog Thor, an 11-year-old Rottweiler, died recently. Harris said that several animal shelters in the area were closed when he called them after the dog died of unknown causes. He then contacted local animal hospitals to see if they could help him dispose of the body. He was told that the dog had to be brought to them. Harris said that he was unable to do that because his car is too small. Officials said that Harris piled wood around Thor's body and then poured on gasoline. But the flames shot up the back of the house to the roof. When firefighters arrived they found smoke billowing from the two-story, single-family home. At the back of the house, firefighters found flames extending from the ground to the attic. A day later animal control finally came and took the dog away. Prince William County fire and rescue Battalion Chief Joe Robertson said that the fire caused $70,000 in damage. It is against the law in Prince William County to burn without a permit.

A black police detective and her 18-year-old daughter were stabbed to death and her son arrested on suspicion of murder after he was found sitting next to the teenager's nude body on the sidewalk outside their home

The bodies of Donna Williams, 52, and Briana Williams, from San Diego, were discovered by officers. Neighbors had called 911 to report a violent disturbance and a woman screaming for help at a home, police said. Officers found the teenager's nude body on the sidewalk and her mother in an upstairs bedroom of the two-story home. Williams' son was sitting next to his sister's body and a large kitchen knife was found on the front lawn. Briana Williams apparently jumped, fell or was pushed from the balcony, authorities said. She was still alive when they arrived but died moments later despite attempts to resuscitate her. A high school softball star, she had just graduated from Mt Carmel High School and was about to go to college on a full scholarship to study fashion design. Brian Williams, 24, was arrested on two counts of suspicion of first-degree murder and was jailed without bail.

The raping of men in Uganda

It isn't just women who get raped in Africa's violent conflicts.

Some of the human X chromosome originates from Neanderthals and is found exclusively in people outside Africa, according to an international team of researchers

Neanderthals, whose ancestors left Africa about 400,000 to 800,000 years ago, evolved in what is now mainly France, Spain, Germany and Russia, and are thought to have lived until about 30,000 years ago. Meanwhile, early modern humans left Africa about 80,000 to 50,000 years ago. About a decade ago the team had identified a piece of DNA (called a haplotype) in the human X chromosome that seemed different and whose origins they questioned. When the Neanderthal genome was sequenced in 2010, they quickly compared 6000 chromosomes from all parts of the world to the Neanderthal haplotype. The Neanderthal sequence was present in peoples across all continents, except for sub-Saharan Africa, and including Australia.

Black guy attacks Ed Sullivan Theater in order to get publicity

A copycat vandal desperate for publicity smashed the doors of the Ed Sullivan Theater, just days after a drunken actor was nabbed in a similar incident, police said. In the latest attack on the home of "The Late Show With David Letterman," Alvin Moore hurled a red metal newspaper box through through the theater's Broadway entrance. "He was jealous of the publicity the first individual got on Monday. He said he hoped it would help his music career," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. Moore, 42, was promptly tackled by a golf club-wielding security guard. Moore - who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 250-pounds - managed to wrestle the club away from the guard, but during the struggle the guard got the club back and hit Moore on the head with it. Moore was taken to St. Luke's Hospital to be treated for a head wound. He was later brought to the Manhattan North police station and charged with third-degree criminal mischief and menacing. Moore has several arrests in Florida, including one for domestic violence battery in May 2010.

Polk County detectives have made a third arrest in connection to an underage sex prostitution case

Deputies have arrested 20-year-old African-American Christopher Hawkins on two counts of Lewd Battery. He is a friend and roommate of Paul Aaron, who has been arrested by deputies on a variety of sex crime charges. Investigators say that Aaron, a county school bus attendant, was the ringleader in the child prostitution operation. The victim in the case was 14-years-old and 15-years old at the time of the incidents. Deputies say that Hawkins was 18-years-old at the time of the incidents which reportedly occurred between July 2009 and February 2010. Also arrested previously, Haines City Police Detective Demetrius Condry. Detectives believe that Condroy kept the girls in line by threatening to arrest them if they didn't do what he ordered.

Even though India’s economy is growing at 9% annually, thousands of Indians are spending huge sums of money to enter the United States illegally and steal American jobs

South Asians are using Mexico as a way to enter the United States of America illegally.

A Somali terror group has recruited more than 20 young men from Minnesota to fight against the Ethiopian army

Details of how a carefully-organized Islamist cell raised money, created fake itineraries and held secret meetings have emerged ahead of the trial of one suspected leader. Omer Abdi Mohamed, 26, is one of 18 men charged with recruiting young Somalis from Minneapolis to join terror group al-Shabab, which has links to Al Qaeda. Since 2007, at least 21 men have left Minnesota for Somalia, where they arrived at safehouses and were given AK-47s and weapons training, court documents claim, before fighting Ethiopian troops. Back in Minnesota, members of the cell raised money for their trip from the Somali community. The group held meetings at mosques and restaurants, and took measures to keep things secretive.

An August 2011 execution date has been set for a black inmate convicted of raping and killing an elderly woman in 2001

Twenty-nine-year-old Jerry Terrell Jackson is set to be executed on August 18, 2011 for the rape and murder of Ruth Phillips of Williamsburg, an 88-year-old widow. Jackson was convicted of rape, capital murder and other charges in 2002. He was found to have broken into the home of Phillips on August 26, 2001, through a partially open bathroom window, raping her and smothering her with a pillow. Jackson, then 20, fled in Phillips' 1987 Dodge sedan, taking her diamond wedding ring and other jewelry. DNA from the murder scene matched Jackson, and he confessed to the crime in a videotaped statement. The jury recommended death, with a judge imposing that sentence in 2003. After state appeals went against him, Jackson came within days of execution in 2006 before getting a reprieve in order for an appeal to be heard. A federal judge ordered a new sentencing hearing for Jackson in 2010, but the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals blocked that hearing on a technicality.

Authorities have apprehended a black man charged with first-degree murder who swapped identities with another prisoner and walked out of a Washington courthouse

Officials have apprehended 24-year-old James Brewer, a suspect in a fatal shooting in Washington in June 2011. D.C. Superior Court records say that before Brewer was called before a judge, he switched identification bracelets with a prisoner arrested on a drug charge. Brewer then apparently posed as the other person and was released because the charge, possession of PCP, is a misdemeanor.

African-American Leon Lewis wanted for rape and sodomy

Investigators with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department say that an armed man who raped a woman in the McKinley Heights neighborhood is now in custody. The victim, a 40-year-old woman, told police that she was at the corner of Jefferson and Ann avenues when she was approached by a man armed with a box-cutter. The suspect led the victim to a vacant second-floor apartment and forcibly raped her. The suspect brought the woman outside and then fled on foot. The woman was able to flag down someone who contacted police. Detectives have identified the suspect as 51-year-old Leon Lewis. The St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office issued at-large warrants against Lewis on charges of forcible rape, forcible sodomy, kidnapping and two counts of armed criminal action. A judge set a $75,000 cash-only bond for Lewis.

African-American gets 30 years for raping girl

Ernest Canada, 50, of St. Louis, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after a jury found him guilty in May 2011 of sexually attacking a girl when she was 11 and 12 years old. Canada had lived at a boarding house the girl's mother ran, and the girl had considered Canada as a surrogate father. The assaults began in January 2006 and continued through February 2008. At that point the girl stood up to Canada and resisted, but in response, Canada forcibly raped and sodomized her. The girl told school officials about the attack and they contacted authorities. Canada was found guilty of one count of forcible rape, one count of child molestation, two counts of forcible sodomy, two counts of statutory rape and five counts of statutory sodomy.

Two black men are accused of kidnapping a teenager and engaging in a series of tortuous acts against him, including burning him with a hot knife and gluing his lips together

Ismael Bangs, 19, has been arraigned in Manchester District Court on charges of felony kidnapping, criminal threatening, and first- and second-degree assault. Yvens Luclaise, 25, was accused of being criminally liable for the charges for assisting in holding the 15-year-old victim and videotaping the crimes with a mobile device. The two men, both of Manchester, were ordered held on $100,000 bail.

A black security guard accused of a shooting spree in Atlanta may have been waiting for the woman he shot dead in a parking garage, police have said

Two women who survived the attack were apparently sprayed at random as he raced from the scene. The suspect stole his first victim's Toyota Prius and shot the other women from inside the car as he drove out of the parking deck, said Atlanta police Maj. Keith Meadows. Hours later, Nkosi Thandiwe called an attorney and turned himself in after he saw that he had been identified by police. Thandiwe waived an initial court appearance at the Fulton County Jail. Police say that the violence began when Thandiwe shot 26-year-old Brittany Watts in the neck on the third-floor of the parking deck outside the high-rise where he worked. "He may have been waiting for his victim inside of the parking structure," said Meadows, who heads the city's major crimes division. While he was fleeing the scene in Watts' car, he sprayed the parking deck with bullets and wounded two women. Authorities say that 23-year-old intern Lauren Garcia and 24-year-old assistant account executive Tiffany Ferenczy were both in stable condition after being struck. Thandiwe worked for AlliedBarton Security Services, which said it was shocked that one of its employees was implicated in the shooting. Company spokesman Alan Stein said that Thandiwe had worked for the firm for less than year. He said AlliedBarton conducted a thorough background check that didn't reveal any prior crimes.