culture

From NewsOne: A woman charged with murdering her 3 1/2-week-old son used a knife and two swords to dismember the child and ate parts of his body, including his brain, before stabbing herself in the torso and slicing her own throat, police said Monday. Otty Sanchez, 33, is charged with capital murder in the death…

From Al Jazeera: “The US secretary of state plans to meet the president of Somalia’s transitional government during a seven-nation trip to Africa next week, the State Department has said. Hillary Clinton will meet Sheikh Sharif Ahmed on the sidelines of an annual trade forum with sub-Saharan countries, which will be held in Nairobi, Kenya’s…

Listen here. The Transcript Dispatcher: Respond to 17 Ware Street for a possible B and E in progress. Two SPs (suspicious persons) barged their way into the home, they have suitcases. R-P 5 – SP. Stand by, trying to get further. Officer 52 (Crowley): 52. Ware Street right now, 17? Dispatcher: 17 Ware Street ……

From Raw Story: A Boise, Idaho, police officer who pushed a Taser inside a man’s buttocks and threatened to “Taser his balls” violated use-of-force policy, but didn’t break the law, an ombudsman has found. The man in question, whose identity is being withheld, plans to sue the Boise police. On February 14 of this year,…

Henry Louis Gates Jr. felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he looked across the threshold of his home at Sgt. James Crowley. Looking back at Gates, Crowley worried about making it home safely to his wife and three children. Fear was the only thing the white police officer and…

From the AP: BOSTON (AP) — The 911 caller who reported a possible break-in at the home of black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. did not mention race in the call, according to a statement issued by her attorney and backed up by Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas. Lucia Whalen placed the 911 call…

From BBC: Central Johannesburg has been brought to a halt as hundreds of South African workers marched as part of a strike to demand higher wages. Many commuters were stranded because buses failed to run. Rubbish has also not been collected. About 150,000 workers in the country have stopped work. Unions say most public services…

From NewsOne: Sixteen people were shot, two of them fatally, in three separate incidents in a two-mile radius in east Baltimore Sunday night, police said. Detectives were searching Monday morning for a gunman who opened fire at a backyard cookout, wounding 12 people, police department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. None of the dozen victims suffered…

From Al Jazeera: At least 42 people have been killed and dozens of others injured after clashes erupted between police and members of a Muslim group in Nigeria, a hospital source said.The clashes began after a failed dawn attack on Sunday on a police station in Dutsen Tenshin, a neighbourhood of the city of Bauchi, capital of the state of the…

This season of ABC’s reality show The Bachelorette is coming to a close. I would like to thank you for the hours of entertainment you’ve provided over 13 seasons of The Bachelor plus five seasons of The Bachelorette: the overuse of the word “amazing,” the overly tearful women (and men) and the repeated stating of…