culture

From Al Jazeera: Five men have been jailed in Burundi for murdering African albinos and selling their body parts to witch doctors. The leader of the gang was jailed for life at a court in Burundi’s eastern Ruyigi province on Thursday after being found guilty of planning and carrying out the killings. Four others were sentenced to…

Video originally found on Al Jazeera: In the Democratic Republic of Congo, an armed conflict between government troops and rebels has been intensifying. But as the conflict rages, sexual crimes against both men and women have also been rising alarmingly.

From BBC: An Ivorian football official has been sentenced to six months in jail for his role in a deadly stadium stampede. Albert Anzouan Kacou, head of the Ivorian Football Federation’s match organising committee, was also fined $1,000 for manslaughter and fraud. Twenty people died and more than 130 were injured when a wall collapsed…

Classique, the title of Will Downing’s new release, suggests yet another collection of “classic” soul and R&B recordings. And Downing does include several remarkable remakes, but what the recording’s title really asserts is that Downing himself is in classic form throughout the album. With more than 21 years in the business, Downing is one of…

At the start of the WNBA season, the dominant question was: How will the league survive? But as the league approaches the all-star game Saturday in Connecticut, the question has changed in a good way. Now everyone is wondering who will survive this topsy-turvy season? The WNBA standings are astonishing. Four teams won 60 percent…

From NewsOne: Four boys ages 9, 10, 13 and 14 lured an 8-year-old neighbor into a shed at a Phoenix apartment complex, then sexually assaulted her, police say. The crime happened last Thursday evening, and police were called to the scene after reports of a young girl running out of the shed, half-nude and screaming.…

From Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic: She is not—I repeat NOT—a neighbor: A witness, 40-year-old Lucia Whalen of Malden, had alerted the cops that a man was “wedging his shoulder into the front door” at Gates’ house “as to pry the door open,” police reported. Now, we can all agree that she was not at…

What does being black in America mean today? Does CNN’s ambitious program break the surface in explaining the black experience? Join The Root staff and readers as we partner with Black Web 2.0 to discuss “Black in America 2” with a panel of young professionals and academics. The second segment of “Black in America 2”…

I was lying in my hospital bed in Boston when I got an e-mail from someone making an oblique reference to the arrest of Skip Gates. I thought the writer was mistaken and wrote back saying, “But Skip is in China.” I couldn’t believe there was anything under the sun that would lead to Skip…

From The AP: NEW YORK — A federal judge has ruled that the predominantly white Fire Department of New York used recruitment exams that discriminate against blacks and Hispanics. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis ruled against New York City on Wednesday, finding that the discrimination occurred in written exams given to thousands of firefighter candidates…