The number of donors who raise big money for President Barack Obama jumped in the last three months as he builds a war chest for what will likely be the costliest presidential election ever.

 At least 41 people have raised at least half a million dollars for the president, compared to 27 in Obama's first report, according to an analysis of campaign data released Friday.

 The big donors, known as "bundlers," are typically well-connected people who pledge to gather tens of thousands of dollars for a candidate.

 Former Goldman Sachs executive Jon Corzine and Dreamworks Animation chief executive executive Jeffrey Katzenberg are on Obama's elite list and raised $500,000 or more.

 The president's campaign finance report shows he can still pull in major cash despite a stagnant economy, dipping approval ratings and grumblings among some liberal supporters that he has not done enough for their cause.

 While still keeping ties to his famed small donor operation, Obama is relying heavily on major donors early on to finance a campaign that is likely to break records in spending, according to Anthony Corrado, a campaign finance expert at Colby College in Maine.

 "The emphasis has been on doing larger dollar fundraising events particularly asking for $2,500," Corrado said. "Events like this help him to raise substantial amounts of money for the campaign allowing him to exceed his pace for 2007."

 GOP ahead in polls

 Obama and the Democratic National Committee have raised more than $150 million so far for his bid for a second term, far outstripping Obama's Republican rivals.

 But fundraising prowess doesn't guarantee victory for the incumbent, who is fighting for re-election amid a economic stagnation and high unemployment.

 Opinion polls show that Obama will have a tough time winning re-election next year. A Gallup poll released on Friday showed that U.S. registered voters, by 46 percent to 38 percent, are more likely to vote for an unnamed Republican presidential candidate than for Obama in 2012. Obama recently called himself the "underdog" in the race.

 Bundlers raised about a third of Obama's war chest so far.

 Earlier on Friday, Republican Mitt Romney posted $14 million for the quarter, second to fellow Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry's $17 million. Obama's comparable fundraising figure for the three months was $43 million.

 Obama voluntarily releases a list of bundlers. No other major candidate has done so.

 The president regularly brings in more than $1 million in a single evening of fundraising, as supporters donate the legal maximum of $35,800 to his campaign and the Democratic party for the chance to have dinner and take a picture with the president.

 UBS executive Robert Wolf and hedge fund executive Orin Kramer are also big Obama fundraisers.

 'Doing well with small donors'

 At least 40 percent of all the money raised by the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee last quarter came from those giving in increments of $200 or less.

 The Obama campaign has been touting its connections to mainstream Americans who send smaller checks, calling itself a grassroots effort.

 "They are still doing well with small donors," said Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a thank tank.

 The campaign said that in the third quarter about 600,000 people donated to the campaign.

 Much has been made of dipping support among Wall Street for Obama. Some financial executives, including hedge fund managers, have complained about Obama's tax and financial regulation policies and his comments about the wealthy, at times calling them "fat cats."

 In the second quarter, more Wall Street money did flow to Romney, who has deep ties there. Still, Obama boosted the number of bundlers with Wall Street ties in that period.

 The Republican candidates' reports, due Saturday, offer the first broad look at their financial health.

 They are the first official tallies of donations and expenses for contenders Perry, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and businessman Herman Cain, who said he raised $2.8 million this quarter.

 Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, had nearly $15 million on hand in addition to the roughly $14 million in contributions during the July-September period that he reported Friday.

 Perry, who briefly surged to the top of the Republican presidential field this summer, has roughly the same in the bank.

 Not counting major support from Republican-leaning super political action committees, the virtual tie between Romney and Perry for cash on hand means the two have similar amounts to spend on ads and travel just months before heading into key primary states.

 Perry is expected to dig into his campaign funds to buy TV ads to Romney's record on health care, abortion, gay rights and job creation. His campaign suggested this week that the moment for a barrage of attack ads was near.

 Romney, the former governor of a predominantly Democratic state, has been attacked for his shifting positions on social issues that are held dear by conservative voters who dominate the Republican primary season. ||||| It is no secret that the relationship between President Obama and Wall Street has chilled. A striking measure of that is the latest campaign finance reports.

 Mitt Romney has raised far more money than Mr. Obama this year from the firms that have been among Wall Street’s top sources of donations for the two candidates.

 That gap underscores the growing alienation from Mr. Obama among many rank-and-file financial professionals and Mr. Romney’s aggressive and successful efforts to woo them.

 The imbalance exists at large investment banks and hedge funds, private equity firms and commercial banks, according to a New York Times analysis of the firms that accounted for the most campaign contributions from the industry to Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama in 2008, based on data from the Federal Election Commission and the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

 It could widen as Mr. Obama, seeking to harness anger over growing income inequality, escalates his criticism of the industry, after a year spent trying to smooth ties bruised by efforts to impose tougher regulations.

 Since this spring, Mr. Romney has raised $1.5 million from employees of firms like Morgan Stanley; Highbridge Capital Management, a hedge fund; and Blackstone, a private equity firm. Mr. Obama has raised just over $270,000 from firms that were among his leading sources of campaign cash in 2008.

 Employees of Goldman Sachs, who in the 2008 campaign gave Mr. Obama over $1 million — more than donors from any other private employer in the country — have given him about $45,000 this year. Mr. Romney has raised about $350,000 from the firm’s employees.

 Those figures do not account for all Wall Street giving, nor for the full force of each candidate’s robust network of Wall Street “bundlers,” wealthy individuals who raise money from friends, family members and business associates. And Mr. Obama continues to dominate Mr. Romney — and the rest of the Republican field — in overall fund-raising. He has raised close to $100 million so far this year for his campaign, three times more than Mr. Romney, as well as $65 million for the Democratic National Committee.

 The gap in Wall Street giving to Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney underscores disenchantment with Mr. Obama in the industry and the challenges both candidates will face in grappling with public anger about the financial world.

 For much of the last year, aides to Mr. Obama have sought to mollify Wall Street executives still bristling over the president’s criticisms of their profits and bonuses, while defending the administration’s program of tougher oversight and regulation as both necessary and beneficial to the industry in the long term.

 But with Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor who once ran the private equity firm Bain Capital, the candidate many in Mr. Obama’s camp believe is his most likely Republican opponent next fall, Mr. Obama’s campaign appears to sense an opportunity to harness public resentment over an industry that has largely thrived while the rest of the economy has not.

 “There’s no doubt that Governor Romney has raised money off of his belief that Wall Street should be allowed to write its own rules again by repealing Wall Street reform,” said Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman. “The president put in place protections to ensure that the financial crisis is not repeated and that unacceptable risks aren’t taken with Americans’ life savings.”

 For his part, Mr. Romney is now pitching himself as the turnaround expert for an ailing national economy. He has personally wooed major Wall Street donors, successfully recruiting several senior financial executives poised to back Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey had he opted for a White House bid.

 But anger at big banks — manifested by the growing Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City and elsewhere — is palpable enough that Mr. Romney must avoid being seen as a friend of an industry that many Americans blame for onerous bank fees and underwater mortgages. |||||

Write a summary.

– President Obama's big-money "bundlers" are on the rise, with at least 41 supporters now having raised more than $500,000 each for the president, reports MSNBC. That's a sizeable jump from the 27 bundlers—well-connected supporters who help candidates raise big money—reported three months ago. It's also a sign that we're getting closer to the 2012 election season, predicted to be the most expensive ever. "The emphasis has been on doing larger dollar fundraising events, particularly asking for $2,500," said a campaign finance expert. "Events like this help him to raise substantial amounts of money for the campaign allowing him to exceed his pace for 2007." Obama and the DNC have raised more than $165 million so far, well ahead of the Republican field—however, the really big money of Wall Street is increasingly lining up behind Mitt Romney and the GOP, reports the New York Times. Since the spring, Romney has raised more than $1.5 million from banks, hedge funds, and other financial firms; Obama, however, has gotten just $270,000. Goldman Sachs employees alone gave Obama more than $1 million in 2008, but so far in this election cycle, he's gotten just $45,000; Romney, on the other hand, has received $350,000 from them.


Write an article based on this summary:

– A group of bus drivers in Paraguay is going to extreme measures to get back the jobs they lost: They crucified themselves—three weeks ago, reports the BBC. The men (some media reports say five, other say eight) used 15-inch nails to affix their hands to crosses that have been laid on the ground, and they've been in that position since losing their jobs (media reports again differ, with some saying the men were laid off, and others saying they were fired) after clamoring for better pay and conditions. Their wives are taking turns, too, the Telegraph reports. "I am joining in today. Tomorrow it will be another mom," said one, who asked that the country's president come and see the "inhuman situation." Some of the men are suffering fevers as well as stomach and chest pains, while four other unions members have been on hunger strike for 36 days, the Daily Mail reports. The bus company has said it will rehire five of the workers and help the other three find new jobs, but the group says it won't budge. "Our position is clear: we want the eight drivers to be reinstated with all employee benefits," the union leader said. "Otherwise the strike is not lifted."

Five Paraguayan bus drivers and one of their wives CRUCIFY themselves in union protest over sackings

 The gruesome demonstration in Paraguay began 20 days ago

 Eight drivers were 'fired after asking for medical benefits and overtime pay'

 The protesters have vowed to continue until they are given their jobs back

 Five bus drivers and one of their wives have crucified themselves, driving 38cm nails through their hands into wooden crosses in a union protest over sackings in Paraguay.

 The gruesome demonstration, which is taking place near the bus terminal at Luque, 12km outside the capital Asuncion, began 20 days ago.

 Each protester has been positioned next to an empty coffin and all have vowed to continue until they are given their jobs back.

 Scroll down for video

 The gruesome demonstration, which is taking place near the bus terminal at Luque, 12km outside the capital Asuncion, began 20 days ago.

 Five bus drivers crucified themselves using five-inch nails after they were fired allegedly for being members of a union

 Mr Villalba, told AFP: 'Our position is clear: we want the eight drivers to be reinstated with all employee benefits. Otherwise the strike is not lifted.'

 He claims some 50 drivers working for the bus company which serves the capital have worked for years without receiving any benefits.

 Company manager Aufredi Paredes said five of the drivers will be re-hired, but the rest will receive legal separation payments.

 Bus drivers, from left, Mariano Centurion, Sergio Cardozo, Felix Aguero, Dario Vera, Claudio Ramirez and Oscar Garcia lie down with their hands nailed to wooden crosses during a protest on the outskirts of Asuncion

  ||||| Eight Paraguayan bus drivers, who were reportedly fired from their jobs after demanding better pay and conditions, haved nail themselves to crosses in Luque, a town north of the capital, Asuncion.

 The men have been lying nailed to crosses through their hands for 20 days, and have vowed to continue their protest until they are reinstated.

 Union leader Juan Villalba, one of the drivers crucified, said they would not give up their protest until all are reinstated.

 Mr Villalba claimed they had been sacked after asking for overtime pay, medical insurance and state pension contributions.

 The drivers' wives are also taking turns to be nailed to crosses alongside their husbands. One appealed to the country's president to come witness their "inhuman situation".

 "I am joining in today. Tomorrow it will be another mum, and the following day it could be another, because we have to defend our rights," she said.

 The manager of the Vanguardia bus company, Aufredi Paredes, said five of the drivers would be re-hired, but the group are refusing to return until all eight are reinstated. |||||


Write an article based on this summary:

– Boris Becker's claim of diplomatic immunity in an ongoing bankruptcy case just went from odd to bewildering. Though the former tennis champ claims his April appointment as a Central African Republic attache to the European Union means he's immune from bankruptcy hearings in the UK, the CAR appears to be balking. Becker's claimed post of attache for sports, culture, and humanitarian affairs "does not exist" in CAR records, meaning he's not an official diplomat, says Foreign Ministry chief of staff Cherubin Moroubama. What's more, the diplomatic passport issued to Becker in March, listing his post as "financial charge de mission," is phony, with a serial number matching one of several stolen under a transitional government in 2014, Moroubama says, per the BBC and Guardian. CAR Foreign Minister Charles Armel Doubane calls the passport a "clumsy fake," per ABC Australia. "To be recognized as a diplomat, it would require not just [the] president's nomination but also my signature as foreign minister," he adds, per the Guardian. That leaves plenty of questions for CAR's ambassador to the EU, Daniel Emery Dede, who reportedly signed Becker's passport, and for the CAR embassy in Belgium, which confirmed the issuance of it and featured a photo of Becker on its website, per the BBC. Becker, who met with CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera in Brussels in April, is maintaining his diplomatic status amid the confusion, reports Deutsche Welle, which has a certificate a lawyer says confirms Becker's position as attache for finance, as well as for sports, culture, and humanitarian affairs.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Boris Becker says the legal action being taken against him is "unjustified and unjust"

 Confusion surrounds a claim by former tennis champion Boris Becker that he holds diplomatic status on behalf of the Central African Republic (CAR).

 He asserted last week in London that his appointment as a diplomat by the CAR gave him protection from legal action in a bankruptcy case.

 The CAR embassy in Belgium confirmed it had issued him a diplomatic passport.

 However, a top official in the CAR foreign ministry told a French news agency the passport was fake.

 Cherubin Moroubama told AFP the serial number on the document matched one of a batch of "new passports that were stolen in 2014".

 He added that the passport, dated 19 March 2018, does not bear the signature or the stamp of the foreign minister.

 CAR foreign minister Charles Armel Doubane later told Reuters an inquiry was being launched into who had issued the passport.

 Lawyers for the 50-year-old three-time Wimbledon champion say he was appointed a sport and culture attache to the EU by the CAR in April.

 In that month he tweeted a picture of himself shaking hands with CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera in Brussels.

 Mr Becker was declared bankrupt in 2017 over money owed to private bank Arbuthnot Latham and is now being pursued for "further assets".

 In his defence lodged with the High Court in London last week, Mr Becker's lawyers maintained he could not be made subject to any legal process unless President Touadera specifically lifted his immunity at the request of the British government.

 Image copyright CAR embassy Brussels Image caption Mr Becker's photo appeared on the website of the CAR embassy in Brussels

 His legal team said: "This means he cannot be subject to legal process in the courts of any country for so long as he remains a recognised diplomatic agent."

 But on Tuesday, Mr Moroubama was quoted by AFP as saying that "Becker's job profile does not exist" in the CAR's records.

 He added that the document in question describes Becker's diplomatic role as "financial charge de mission... nothing to do with sporting questions".

 Mr Becker's lawyers have not yet responded.

 The tennis star became the first German to win Wimbledon in 1985, at the age of 17.

 He won it again in 1986 and 1989 among the 64 ATP Tour titles he claimed during a 15-year career.

 After his retirement as a player he became a commentator with the BBC. ||||| Boris Becker's diplomatic passport for the Central African Republic 'fake': Foreign Minister

 Updated

 Central African Republic's Foreign Minister says a copy of former tennis champion Boris Becker's diplomatic passport he has seen is a "clumsy fake".

 Becker said he had claimed diplomatic immunity from bankruptcy proceedings in London by taking up a role with Central African Republic (CAR) as a sports envoy.

 But the country's Foreign Minister, Charles Armel Doubane, said the diplomatic passport he had seen was a fake.

 "The signature on the passport was not mine and the number belongs to a series that was stolen during the transitional government [set up in 2014 after the country's civil conflict]," he said.

 "The copy of Boris Becker's passport that I saw and that has been circulating on social media is a clumsy fake."

 He said CAR was launching an inquiry into who issued the phoney diplomatic passport to Becker.

 Becker's lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

 The 50-year-old was declared bankrupt by a British court last year in connection to a debt owed to private bankers Arbuthnot Latham.

 He had recently been pursued for "further assets", according to a statement by his lawyers.

 Becker's argument against 'gravy train for the suits'

 The former tennis champion lodged a claim at the High Court in London to halt the case, and claimed his appointment as a diplomat by the CAR afforded him protection.

 Becker's lawyers argued his post as attache diplomatic immunity under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which meant he "cannot be subject to legal process in the courts of any country for so long as he remains a recognised diplomatic agent".

 Through his lawyers, Becker had said the bank's decision to sue him was "both unjustified and unjust".

 "A bunch of anonymous and unaccountable bankers and bureaucrats pushed me into a completely unnecessary declaration of bankruptcy, which has inflicted a whole heap of damage on me," he said late last week.

 "Once this gravy train for the suits has been stopped in its tracks, my lawyers will turn to the question of compensation."

 In the statement, Becker went on say his attache role for the CAR would allow him to give something meaningful back to sports supporters in one of the poorest parts of the world.

 "There's no reason why a role of this kind should be treated any differently to an appointment as a military or a trade attache, which everyone recognises as attracting diplomatic immunity," he said.

 During his tennis career Becker stacked up six grand slam titles but in recent years his life has been a roller coaster.

 He lost much of his fortune, had a messy divorce and became the butt of jokes for his flings.

 Reuters/ABC

 Topics: tennis, sport, law-crime-and-justice, international-law, laws, germany, central-african-republic, england

 First posted ||||| Country says tennis star, who faces bankruptcy proceedings, is not one of its diplomats

 The Central African Republic has denied that Boris Becker is one of its official diplomats and said a passport the former tennis star claimed should give him diplomatic immunity from bankruptcy proceedings in the UK is invalid.

 “The diplomatic passport that he has is a fake,” the foreign ministry’s chief of staff, Cherubin Moroubama, told Agence-France Presse. He said the document’s serial number corresponded to one of a batch of passports stolen in 2014.

 AFP said the passport, of which it had seen a copy, was dated 19 March 2018 but had not been stamped or signed by the country’s foreign minister, Charles Armel Doubane.

 On Friday lawyers for the three-time Wimbledon champion informed the high court in London that he had been appointed as the CAR’s attaché to the EU on sporting, cultural and humanitarian affairs in April. They argued this gave him diplomatic immunity from bankruptcy proceedings under the Vienna convention.

 According to the German daily Die Welt, Doubane told journalists in Bangui that Becker was “not an official diplomat for the Central African Republic. To be recognised as a diplomat, it would require not just president’s nomination but also my signature as foreign minister.”

 Moroubama said the job Becker claimed to be doing for his nation – which, despite abundant natural resources including gold, diamonds and uranium, ranks bottom of the UN’s human development index – “does not exist”.

 Becker, who became the youngest male grand slam champion when he won Wimbledon as an unseeded player in 1985, was declared bankrupt in June last year over an undisclosed sum owed to the private bankers Arbuthnot Latham & Co.

 After his lawyers submitted the application for immunity, Becker said the decision to commence bankruptcy proceedings against him was “both unjustified and unjust” and he was asserting immunity “to bring this farce to an end so that I can start to rebuild my life”. |||||


News article:

(CNN) -- A tsunami advisory announced shortly after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Japan's Ryukyu Islands early Saturday has been canceled, Japan's Meteorological Agency reported.

 There was no tsunami damage "though there may be slight sea level changes from now on," it said, referring to the areas affected by the advisory -- the Okinawa Islands, the Amami Islands and the Tokara Islands.

 The quake was centered 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) deep and struck at 5:31 a.m. (3:31 p.m. ET Friday) about 85 kilometers (53 miles) from Okinawa.

 The quake was felt on Okinawa, with shaking that lasted about 15 seconds, said Lt. Col. Daniel King of the U.S. Pacific Command. He told CNN that commanders in Japan and Hawaii were trying to get damage and casualty reports from U.S. military stations on Okinawa, but had heard nothing in the immediate aftermath.

 About 20,000 U.S. troops -- mostly Marines, along with Navy and Air Force personnel -- are stationed on eight bases on Okinawa, he said.

 Are you there? Send photos, video

 iReporter Kristina Donaldson, who lives in central Okinawa, said the quake "seemed to last longer than other ones we have experienced here."

 "We felt the quake pretty good this morning," she said, but life there was largely unaffected.

 "I just walked down to the coastline and the kids are walking to school as they always do. No sirens, or any destruction from where we are."

 Okinawa resident Eric Shepherd said his grandmother-in-law described it as the strongest quake she had felt in her 90 years on the island.

 "It felt like some really bad airplane turbulence," Shepherd said, adding that one of his two children slept through what seemed like a minute-long "rumble."

 "I had no problem walking to the kids' room to check on them" during the quake, he said.

 CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this report. ||||| TOKYO |

 TOKYO (Reuters) - A strong earthquake hit Japan's southern island of Okinawa early on Saturday and Japan's weather agency issued a tsunami warning for up to 2 meters, but this was later lifted and there were no reports of major damage.

 The U.S. Geological Survey said the 7.3 magnitude quake struck at 5:31 a.m. on Saturday (2031 GMT on Friday) 52 miles east of the island's capital of Naha, a city of about 320,000 about 1,600 km (1,000 miles) south of Tokyo.

 The Japan Meteorological Agency, which put the magnitude at 6.9, warned residents near the coast to evacuate to high ground, but the tsunami warning was later lifted.

 Okinawa prefectural police official Noritomi Kikuzato told Reuters there were no reports of injuries or major damage.

 "First there was a strong vertical shake, then sideways. The strong quake lasted for about 10 seconds," said Naha city official Seiboku Sueyoshi.

 An official at oil refiner Nansei Sekiyu KK said operations at its 100,000 barrels per day Nishihara refinery on the island were continuing normally after the quake and that there had been no reports of major damage to the facilities.

 Public broadcaster NHK said local fire departments so far had no reports of injuries or damage to buildings.

 Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

 In October 2004, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 struck the Niigata region in northern Japan, killing 65 people and injuring more than 3,000.

 That was the deadliest quake since a magnitude 7.3 tremor hit the city of Kobe in 1995, killing more than 6,400.

 (Reporting by Yoko Kubota, Chris Gallagher, Edwina Gibbs and Osamu Tsukimori; Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Charles Dick) |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A tsunami warning has been lifted and residents of Okinawa are breathing a sigh of relief after an earthquake rattled the southern Japanese island early Saturday morning. " First there was a strong vertical shake, then sideways," an official of the city of Naha tells Reuters. "The strong quake lasted for about 10 seconds ." There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties on the eight American military bases in the area, CNN reports.


Article:

Experimental Compound Reverses Down Syndrome-Like Learning Deficits In Mice

 Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only

 Citations Science Translational Medicine; R01 HD38384; MH51106; R01 NS39156

 Newswise — Researchers at Johns Hopkins and the National Institutes of Health have identified a compound that dramatically bolsters learning and memory when given to mice with a Down syndrome-like condition on the day of birth. As they report in the Sept. 4 issue of Science Translational Medicine, the single-dose treatment appears to enable the cerebellum of the rodents’ brains to grow to a normal size.

 The scientists caution that use of the compound, a small molecule known as a sonic hedgehog pathway agonist, has not been proven safe to try in people with Down syndrome, but say their experiments hold promise for developing drugs like it.

 “Most people with Down syndrome have a cerebellum that’s about 60 percent of the normal size,” says Roger Reeves, Ph.D., a professor in the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “We treated the Down syndrome-like mice with a compound we thought might normalize the cerebellum’s growth, and it worked beautifully. What we didn’t expect were the effects on learning and memory, which are generally controlled by the hippocampus, not the cerebellum.”

 Reeves has devoted his career to studying Down syndrome, a condition that occurs when people have three, rather than the usual two, copies of chromosome 21. As a result of this “trisomy,” people with Down syndrome have extra copies of the more than 300 genes housed on that chromosome, which leads to intellectual disabilities, distinctive facial features and sometimes heart problems and other health effects. Since the condition involves so many genes, developing treatments for it is a formidable challenge, Reeves says.

 For the current experiments, Reeves and his colleagues used mice that were genetically engineered to have extra copies of about half of the genes found on human chromosome 21.

 The mice have many characteristics similar to those of people with Down syndrome, including relatively small cerebellums and difficulty learning and remembering how to navigate through a familiar space. (In the case of the mice, this was tested by tracking how readily the animals located a platform while swimming in a so-called water maze.)

 Based on previous experiments on how Down syndrome affects brain development, the researchers tried supercharging a biochemical chain of events known as the sonic hedgehog pathway that triggers growth and development. They used a compound — a sonic hedgehog pathway agonist — that could do just that.

 The compound was injected into the Down syndrome-like mice just once, on the day of birth, while their cerebellums were still developing. “We were able to completely normalize growth of the cerebellum through adulthood with that single injection,” Reeves says.

 But the research team went beyond measuring the cerebellums, looking for changes in behavior, too. “Making the animals, synthesizing the compound and guessing the right dose were so difficult and time-consuming that we wanted to get as much data out of the experiment as we could,” Reeves says. The team tested the treated mice against untreated Down syndrome-like mice and normal mice in a variety of ways, and found that the treated mice did just as well as the normal ones on the water maze test.

 Reeves says further research is needed to learn why exactly the treatment works, because their examination of certain cells in the hippocampus known to be involved in learning and affected by Down syndrome appeared unchanged by the sonic hedgehog agonist treatment. One idea is that the treatment improved learning by strengthening communication between the cerebellum and the hippocampus, he says.

 As for the compound’s potential to become a human drug, the problem, Reeves says, is that altering an important biological chain of events like sonic hedgehog would likely have many unintended effects throughout the body, such as raising the risk of cancer by triggering inappropriate growth. But now that the team has seen the potential of this strategy, they will look for more targeted ways to safely harness the power of sonic hedgehog in the cerebellum. Even if his team succeeds in developing a clinically useful drug, however, Reeves cautions that it wouldn’t constitute a “cure” for the learning and memory-related effects of Down syndrome. “Down syndrome is very complex, and nobody thinks there’s going to be a silver bullet that normalizes cognition,” he says. “Multiple approaches will be needed.”

 Other authors on the paper were Jung H. Shin of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and Ishita Das, Joo-Min Park, Soo Kyeong Jeon, Hernan Lorenzi, David J. Linden and Paul F. Worley, all of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

 The study was funded by the Down Syndrome Research and Treatment Foundation, Research Down Syndrome, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (grant number R01 HD38384), the intramural programs of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute of Mental Health (grant number MH51106) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (grant number R01 NS39156).

 Comment/Share ||||| Lab experiment reverses Down syndrome in mice

 (AFP) – Sep 4, 2013

 WASHINGTON — US researchers said Wednesday they have found a way to reverse Down syndrome in newborn lab mice by injecting an experimental compound that causes the brain to grow normally.

 While the study in the journal Science Translational Medicine offers no direct link to a treatment for humans, researchers are hopeful it may someday offer a path toward future breakthroughs.

 There is no cure for Down syndrome, which is caused by the presence of an additional chromosome, leading to extra copies of more than 300 genes and causing intellectual disabilities, distinctive facial features and sometimes other health problems.

 The team at Johns Hopkins University used lab mice that were genetically engineered to have extra copies of about half the genes found on human chromosome 21, leading to Down syndrome-like conditions such as smaller brains and difficulty learning to navigate a maze.

 On the day the mice were born, scientists injected them with a small molecule known as a sonic hedgehog pathway agonist.

 The compound, which has not been proven safe for use in human, is designed to boost normal growth of the brain and body via a gene known as SHH.

 The gene provides instructions for making a protein called sonic hedgehog, which is essential for development.

 "It worked beautifully," said lead author Roger Reeves of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

 "Most people with Down syndrome have a cerebellum that's about 60 percent of the normal size," he said.

 "We were able to completely normalize growth of the cerebellum through adulthood with that single injection."

 The injection also led to unexpected benefits in learning and memory, normally handled by a different part of the brain known as the hippocampus.

 Researchers found that the treated mice did as well as normal mice on a test of locating a water platform while in a swimming maze.

 However, adjusting the treatment for human use would be complicated, since altering the growth of the brain could lead to unintended consequences, like triggering cancer.

 "Down syndrome is very complex, and nobody thinks there's going to be a silver bullet that normalizes cognition," he said. "Multiple approaches will be needed."

 Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| Scientists have taken another step forward when it comes to treating Down syndrome. They've discovered a compound that dramatically bolsters learning and memory in mice that have had Down syndrome-like symptoms since birth. This "reversal" of the syndrome could help with future research. (Photo : Reuters)

 Scientists have taken another step forward when it comes to treating Down syndrome. They've discovered a compound that dramatically bolsters learning and memory in mice that have had Down syndrome-like symptoms since birth. This "reversal" of the syndrome could help with future research.

 Like Us on Facebook

 Down syndrome is a condition that occurs when people have three, rather than the usual two, copies of chromosome 21. As a result of this, people with Down syndrome have extra copies of the more than 300 genes that are housed on that chromosome. This, in turn, leads to intellectual disabilities, distinctive facial features and sometimes heart problems and other health effects.

 The compound is a small molecule known as a sonic hedgehog pathway agonist. Currently, it has not been proven safe to try in people with Down syndrome. Yet this latest discovery does hold promise for developing drugs like it.

 "Most people with Down syndrome have a cerebellum that's about 60 percent of the normal size," said Roger Reeves, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We treated the Down syndrome-like mice with a compound we thought might normalize the cerebellum's growth, and it worked beautifully. What we didn't expect were the effects on learning and memory, which are generally controlled by the hippocampus, not the cerebellum."

 In the experiment, the researchers used mice that were genetically engineered to have extra copies of about half of the genes found on human chromosome 21. This causes the mice to have many characteristics similar to people with Down syndrome. The scientists injected the compound into the Down syndrome-like mice just once on the day of their birth while their cerebellums were still developing. They then tested the treated mice against untreated Down syndrome-like mice and normal mice.

 It turned out that the treated mice performed just as well as normal mice in tests. This is a huge step toward potentially developing drugs for human use. Currently, the researchers plan to conduct more research to find out exactly why the treatment works. Yet the scientists remain cautious.

 "Down syndrome is very complex, and nobody thinks there's going to be a silver bullet that normalizes people," said Reeves. "Multiple approaches will be needed."

 The findings are published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. |||||
What is a summary?

– We'll start by tempering expectations: The breakthrough you're about to read about has "no direct link" to a human treatment, reports AFP, but it's noteworthy nonetheless. Scientists say they've identified a molecule that "reverses" the effects of Down syndrome in mice. The molecule is called sonic hedgehog pathway agonist, and it was administered to mice who were genetically altered to have characteristics akin to those of Down syndrome. The molecule, which is not approved as safe for humans, spurs a gene to make a protein tied to development. "Most people with Down syndrome have a cerebellum that's about 60% of the normal size," says one of the Johns Hopkins researchers. Science World Report notes that the mice were injected on the day they were born, at which point their cerebellums hadn't fully developed. The single injection appeared to normalize the cerebellum's growth. In an added surprise, memory and learning, "which are generally controlled by the hippocampus, not the cerebellum," were also positively affected. But the researcher explains that applying the treatment to humans is a tricky proposition, and could have unintended consequences, like raising cancer risk.


Summarize this article:

A six-member medical board, formed yesterday to discuss Bangladeshi tree man, Abul Bajandar's treatment, decided to start a multi-stage plastic surgery on the patient's hands in about three weeks.

 “The patient appears malnourished and is still too weak for immediate surgery,” said Dr Sen, a physician and coordinator of Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where Abul, suffering from the rare tree man illness, was admitted yesterday.

 Abul, 26, hailing from Khulna, has tree trunk like warts, almost weighing four kilogrammes on both his hands and feet. As a result, he cannot carry out any function with his hands.

 Doctors are planning surgery on his hands to bring some level of functionality, by removing extra flesh from the thumb and the index fingers.

 Medical examination of the patient, including blood tests, and biopsy will start today, said Sen.

 Meanwhile, many foreign doctors and researchers have taken interest in Abul's case and are contacting the DMCH.

 They wish to help find a solution to the incurable skin disorder, whereby warts triggered by a virus becomes thickened and hardened into horns and branch out from the skin.

 “An American doctor emailed us today asking for blood and biopsy sample of the patient,” said Dr Sen, adding that medical specialists from other countries also offered their help.

 “Doctors said I might need to stay here for six months,” Abul said, now at a DMCH cabin. However, he is not getting enough rest because of curious visitors, who throng his cabin day long.

 Dr Sen said Ansar members would be deployed today to control the crowd.

 Abul's mother and sister accompanied him to Dhaka on Friday. His wife Halima and three-year-old daughter Tahera will be taken to the city to be by his side, he said. ||||| AFP / Munir Uz Zaman

 Abul Bajandar, 26, dubbed "Tree Man" for massive bark-like warts on his hands and feet, sits at Dhaka Medical College Hospital in Dhaka on January 31, 2016

 A Bangladeshi father dubbed "Tree Man" for massive bark-like warts on his hands and feet will finally have surgery to remove the growths that first began appearing 10 years ago, a hospital said Sunday.

 Abul Bajandar, from the southern district of Khulna, was undergoing preparations for the surgery to cut out the growths weighing at least five kilogrammes (11 pounds) that have smothered his hands and feet.

 "Initially, I thought that they're harmless," the 26-year-old told AFP at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).

 "But slowly I lost all my ability to work. There are now dozens of two to three inch roots in both my hands. And there are some small ones in my legs," said Bajandar who was forced to quit working as a bicycle puller.

 A team of doctors has been formed to perform the operation at DMCH, Bangladesh's largest state-run hospital, which has decided to waive costs of the treatment.

 Tests are underway to ensure Bajandar's root-like warts can be removed surgically without damaging major nerves or causing any other health problems.

 AFP / Munir Uz Zaman

 A team of doctors has been formed to perform the operation at DMCH, Bangladesh's largest state-run hospital, which has decided to waive costs of the treatment

 The massive warts, which first started appearing when he was a teenager but began spreading rapidly four years ago, have been diagnosed as epidermodysplasia verruciformis, an extremely rare genetic skin disease that makes the person susceptible to skin growths.

 "Popularly it is known as tree-man disease," DMCH director Samanta Lal Sen told AFP.

 "As far as we know there are three such cases in the world including Abul Bajandar. It is the first time we have found such a rare case in Bangladesh," he said.

 An Indonesian villager with massive warts all over his body underwent a string of operations in 2008 to remove them.

 Bajandar's elder sister, Adhuri Bibi, said hundreds of people have visited their home in Khulna over the years to see the "Tree Man".

 "Even here at the hospital, hundreds have already gathered," she told AFP.

 Bajandar, a father of one, said he tried cutting the warts when they first appeared, but it was extremely painful.

 "After that I went to a village homeopath and herbal specialist. But those medicines only worsened my condition."

 He also consulted doctors in neighbouring India, but he and his family could not afford the cost of the operation there. |||||

– A father and former bicycle puller is gearing up for major surgery at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital in Bangladesh to remove more than 11 pounds of bark-like warts on his hands and feet that have earned him the nickname "tree man." The 26-year-old tells AFP he has suffered from what doctors call epidermodysplasia verruciformis for a decade, but that the growths dramatically increased in size and number four years ago. "Slowly I lost all my ability to work," says Abul Bajandar. "There are now dozens of two to three inch roots in both my hands. And there are some small ones in my legs." The genetic skin disease is so rare that one doctor says there are only three known cases in the world. At first Bajandar says he tried to cut the growths off himself but found it too painful, and when he went to a village homeopath his condition worsened. And while the six-person medical team is already starting to perform blood tests and biopsies, they describe Bajandar as too malnourished and weak for multi-stage plastic surgery, reports the Daily Star. "Doctors said I might need to stay here for six months," he said. His mother and sister are with him now, while his wife and 3-year-old daughter will join him soon. "Even here at the hospital, hundreds have already gathered" to try to get a look at Bajander, says his sister. Surgery is expected to start in three weeks, and the hospital is not charging Bajandar. (This baby's skin blisters when simply touched.)


NEW ORLEANS -- A Tulane Medical student is fighting for his life after being shot Uptown trying to stop an attempted abduction.

 Investigators say security cameras caught a close up of the gunman and his getaway car. Eyewitness News Reporter Tania Dall spoke with an eyewitness who says he saw the crime unfold.

 "He did not seem to care at all. It seemed like a very natural, nonchalant process for him to go ahead and take somebody's life," said a man who witnessed the crime and asked to not be identified.

 The image caught on surveillance video is a chilling one. It shows a woman who police now say was drunk, being dragged in the 1000 block of St. Mary Street by a hooded man at 4 a.m. on Friday morning.

 The scene caught the attention of Peter Gold who was driving by. The 25-year-old turned his car around to help the young woman. The eyewitness says he heard the commotion, which quickly unfolded and led to the violent crime.

 "I heard a guy yelling outside saying: 'I don't have any more money,'" said the eyewitness.

 The gunman is captured on security cameras pulling the trigger and shooting Gold once. The suspect then aims at the victim's head, trying to shoot him three more times, but investigators say the gun appeared to be jammed. Police said the suspect demanded money from Gold then shot him because he said he did not have cash. The suspect took the woman's purse and left the scene.

 "When I looked outside, the guy with the gun with the clip hanging out shot him in the stomach. I couldn't tell that then. He was lying on the ground, and then I saw him try to execute him," said the witness.

 The good Samaritan who stopped is a fourth year Tulane medical student who is now fighting for his life after receiving a bullet wound to his abdomen.

 New Orleans police say cameras captured clear images of the man and his getaway car.

 "There's no greater selfless act than to stop and help someone perhaps who you don't know, for reasons you don't know," said NOPD Superintendent Michael Harrison.

 Police said the suspect is a black man and he was wearing a dark hooded jacket. Tulane University is even offering up a $10,000 reward to anyone who can help crack the troubling case.

 "Let me make that clear you can't hide and run. We are going to catch you," said Chief Harrison.

 Police say Gold is in "guarded" condition at the hospital and the woman seen in the surveillance video was treated for minor injuries and released.

 If you recognize the suspect in the video call Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.

 Read or Share this story: http://on.wwltv.com/1HdOFWa ||||| Update: Suspect identified in shooting of Tulane Medical School student

 Update: Suspect identified in shooting of Tulane Medical School student

 UPDATE, 3 p.m. Sunday: A suspect has been identified in the shooting of Tulane Medical School student Peter Gold, officials said Sunday.

 21-year-old Euric Cain is wanted in connection with the shooting, police said at a press conference Sunday afternoon. Cain's SUV was found Sunday morning in the 2200 block of John Raphael Place, Police Chief Michael Harrison said.

 Gold continues to improve, but remains in guarded condition at the hospital.

 The woman who was abducted continues to cooperate, police said.

 A $12,500 reward is being offered for any information on Cain or the shooting. Cain is wanted for attempted first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping and armed robbery.

 Original story:

 Fourth-year Tulane Medical School student Peter Gold was driving on Magazine Street at 4 a.m. Friday when he spotted a woman being carried against her will to a nearby car on St. Mary Street.

 He backed up and turned against traffic on St. Mary, pulling up to the woman — by now crumpled on the sidewalk — and rushed to her aid, cellphone in hand.

 As he crouched at her side, the man who had been carrying her moments before jumped out of a light-colored sport utility vehicle with a semi-automatic weapon and pointed it at Gold’s face.

 He pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed.

 Lowering the weapon, he shot Gold in the stomach.

 Gold fell to the ground, wincing, and the man pointed the gun at his head a second time and pulled the trigger.

 The gun jammed again.

 Twice more, the assailant tried to shoot Gold in the head. Each time, the gun jammed, and the man glanced furtively over his shoulder, shaking the malfunctioning weapon.

 Finally, he gave up, jumped in his vehicle and sped away, leaving the gut-shot good Samaritan and the woman the man had tried to abduct behind him on the sidewalk.

 The chilling footage, captured by a private security camera positioned overhead, was turned over Friday morning to the New Orleans Police Department. As of Friday evening, the department said the shooter was still at large, and Gold was in guarded condition, surrounded by family and friends at University Medical Center. He is expected to make a full recovery.

 Tulane University is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the arrest and indictment of the assailant.

 The woman, whom police did not identify, was treated for minor injuries and released.

 Unedited raw video footage of the incident viewed by The New Orleans Advocate shows the woman being carried by a man in a hooded sweatshirt. She lifts her feet off the ground in apparent protest as they near the car.

 At that point, the man sets her down to open the driver’s side door. He pulls her purse from her hands as she slumps to the ground. Then, he gets in the car.

 That’s the moment Gold arrives and goes straight to the woman. The assailant appears to demand money from Gold, who is seen holding up his hands in protest before he is shot.

 In an email to students, Tulane President Michael Fitts said he was “shocked and saddened” by news of the shooting.

 Gold, 25, originally from Longwood, Florida, did his undergraduate work at Tulane and was active in Tulane Hillel, a Jewish organization on campus.

 “I ask that you keep Peter and his family in your thoughts and prayers,” Fitts said in the email. “He is an outstanding student who represents the best of Tulane in every possible way.”

 Michele Adams, who taught Gold while he was an undergraduate sociology student, said she was stunned to hear the news but not surprised that Gold would risk his safety to help someone he thought was in danger.

 “That is so Peter,” she said. “He was always engaged, involved with his peers and just an amazing person, so it doesn’t surprise me to hear he was trying to help someone. ‘Selfless’ is what comes to mind.”

 Adams, an associate professor and chairwoman of Tulane’s department of sociology, said Gold was chosen from about 60 students the year he graduated to receive the department’s Outstanding Student award. She recalled his honors thesis, which analyzed the ways people used social media on their cellphones to connect with one another.

 “Peter is really one of the nicest people you would ever meet, and he is an amazing student, I’m sure, even in med school,” she said.

 The cold-blooded nature of the attempted execution — and the widely viewed high-resolution video documenting it — sent new shock waves through Uptown neighborhoods shaken by several brazen armed robberies in recent months.

 Lt. Nick Gernon told reporters outside the 6th District police station on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on Friday evening that Gold could very well have been another fatality if the shooter’s gun had not jammed.

 He said that all police have to go on is the vehicle and the video footage, which shows a black male just under 6 feet tall, in his 20s or 30s.

 “Right now, we’re asking the public to look at the video,” Gernon said. “There are some parts of it where you can see the person’s face, and you can see the SUV he flees in.”

 “Obviously, the level of violence we saw this morning is disturbing, and we would hope that will compel someone to come forward and give us the information we need,” he said. “We don’t solve these cases without the community’s help, and that’s what we’re asking for here.”

 Anyone with information about the shooter is asked to call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111 or post a tip at crime stoppersgno.org.

 Follow Chad Calder on Twitter, @Chad_Calder. ||||| NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans police have identified a man accused of shooting a medical student who stopped an apparent kidnapping.

 (Click Prev or Next to continue viewing images.)

 ADVERTISEMENT (Click Prev or Next to continue viewing images.)

 This undated photo released by the New Orleans Police Department shows Euric Cain, who is accused of shooting a medical student who stopped an apparent kidnapping. Police say Cain of New Orleans is wanted... (Associated Press)

 Police say 21-year-old Euric Cain of New Orleans is wanted on charges of armed robbery, second-degree kidnapping and attempted first-degree murder.

 Tulane University and Crimestoppers are offering up to $12,500 for information leading to arrest and indictment.

 Surveillance video released by police shows a man dragging a woman toward an SUV early Friday, and 25-year-old Peter Gold pulling up and trying to help her.

 Police say the man demanded money and shot Gold when he said he didn't have any. A misfire apparently foiled an attempt to shoot him in the head.

 The woman was treated for minor injuries.

 Tulane spokesman Keith Brannon says Gold's family said Sunday that he's improving but remains in guarded condition. ||||| The New Orleans Police Department Sunday announced that they are looking for 21-year-old Euric Cain as a suspect in the shooting of Tulane Medical School fourth-year student Peter Gold early Friday.

 Gold, 25, stopped his car upon seeing a man dragging a woman toward an SUV in the 1000 block of Saint Mary Street, police said. When he tried to help, police said the gunman pointed a weapon at Gold and demanded his money.

 New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Police Superintendent Michael Harrison announced the identification at a news conference at the department's headquarters Sunday afternoon. They said Cain is wanted on charges of attempted first degree murder, second degree kidnapping and armed robbery.

 Harrison also confirmed that the woman had been treated and released for injuries she sustained during the incident, including bruises. The victim was interviewed by detectives on Sunday, Harrison said.

 An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Gold as a resident. The Tulane Medical School has identified him as a fourth-year student. |||||

Write a summary.

– A medical student in New Orleans is incredibly lucky to be alive after being shot in the stomach while foiling an attempted kidnapping Friday morning, police say. In footage obtained by the New Orleans Police Department, a suspect identified as 21-year-old Euric Cain can be seen shooting Peter Gold in the stomach and then pointing the gun at his head and pulling the trigger, only to have the weapon apparently jam, the Advocate reports. Police say that after Gold stopped at around 4am to help the young woman he saw the suspect dragging along the street, the suspect demanded money from him and shot him after he said he didn't have any, the AP reports. Police have praised the actions of 25-year-old Gold, who is in his fourth year at Tulane University School of Medicine. "There's no greater selfless act than to stop and help someone perhaps who you don't know, for reasons you don't know," NOPD Superintendent Michael Harrison tells WWLTV. Cain is wanted on charges of attempted first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping, and armed robbery, reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The AP reports that the woman was treated for minor injuries received during the incident, while Gold is improving but remains in "guarded" condition in a hospital, his family says. (Sixteen people were injured in a shootout at a New Orleans playground on Sunday night.)


First lady Melania Trump told ABC News in an exclusive interview that she has told her husband there have been people in his administration she didn't trust who worked for him.

 Interested in Melania Trump? Add Melania Trump as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Melania Trump news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest

 She also said she believes she is one of the most bullied people in the world.

 Asked by ABC News Chief National Affairs Correspondent Tom Llamas whether there are still people in the president’s administration "he can't trust," the first lady said yes.

 "It's harder to govern," the first lady said in a clip set to air Thursday on "Good Morning America." "You always need to watch your back."

 The first lady's comments come on the heels of a recent op-ed in The New York Times by an anonymous senior Trump administration official who claimed that many senior officials are trying to "frustrate parts of [Trump's] agenda."

 ABC News

 Trump blasted the essay on Twitter as "gutless" before sending out a one-word tweet: "TREASON?"

 ABC News' wide-ranging interview with the first lady took place in Africa, where she traveled to promote her "Be Best" campaign, which raises awareness about online bullying.

 The first lady explained how her experience being bullied led in part to her "Be Best" initiative.

 "I could say that I'm the most bullied person in the world," Melania Trump said.

 Pressed by Llamas on that assertion, she responded, "One of them -- if you really see what people are saying about me."

 Tune in this Friday, Oct. 12, at 10 p.m. for more of the ABC News special, "Being Melania -- The First Lady." ||||| Washington (CNN) First lady Melania Trump said in an interview that aired Thursday that she is the most bullied person in the world, which has led her to create her anti-bullying "Be Best" initiative, before softening her comments slightly to say she is one of the most bullied.

 "I could say I'm the most bullied person on the world," Trump told ABC News in an interview during her first major solo trip to Africa last week when asked what personally made her want to tackle the issue of cyberbullying.

 "You're really the most bullied person in the world?" ABC News' Tom Llamas asked during the exchange.

 "One of them, if you really see what people saying about me," Trump said.

 Asked how bullying could affect children, including her son Barron, Trump said that is why her initiative is focused on social media and online behavior.

 Read More |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Melania Trump has doubts about some of the people who rub elbows with her husband in the West Wing. She thinks there are people there he can't trust, the first lady tells ABC News' Tom Llamas in a clip from an interview filmed during her trip to Africa. Trump says she gives her husband her "honest opinions" on individuals, with the result that "some people, they don't work there anymore," per CNN. But "you always need to watch your back," she says. Trump also paints herself as the perfect person to be leading a campaign against online bullying: "I could say that I'm the most bullied person [in] the world … one of them, if you really see what people are saying about me," she says. Referring to the effect bullying has on kids, she adds, "we need to educate the children [about] social-emotional behavior ... That's very important." Trump spoke about the #MeToo movement in an earlier clip. The full interview, touching on infidelity and child migrants, airs Friday.


News article:

Inmates to refuse work assignments in action over use as unpaid labor, which one human rights activist says is a case of state forcing ‘work at gunpoint’

 Inmates of Florida’s prisons are planning to use Monday’s Martin Luther King Day holiday to launch a statewide strike over conditions they say amount to modern-day slavery.

 I read The New Jim Crow in jail. It changed my life | Jason Hernandez Read more

 The unusual protest has been called by inmates angry at being used as unpaid clean-up crews for storm debris in sweltering temperatures last September, after Hurricane Irma struck the state.

 But organisers cite a number of other longstanding grievances for the planned month-long action, in which prisoners will refuse to take part in work assignments and forego purchasing “overpriced” luxury items such as snacks and toiletries, in an attempt to hit the state’s department of corrections in the pocket.

 “Our goal is to make the governor realise that it will cost the state of Florida millions of dollars daily to contract outside companies to come and cook, clean and handle the maintenance,” the unnamed prisoners said in a statement posted on the website of the inmates’ advocacy group Fight Toxic Prisons.

 “This will cause a total breakdown. We must use everything we have to show that we mean business.”

 Florida has the nation’s third-largest prison system with 97,000 inmates, according to state figures. It is also one of the most troubled and violent such systems, with allegations of abuse of inmates rife.

 In 2017, officers were cleared of blame for the death of a mentally ill patient they left in a scalding shower for two hours as punishment. In-depth investigations by the Miami Herald uncovered large numbers of rapes, beatings and cover-ups in the state’s non-air-conditioned jails.

 The prisoners have dubbed their protest Operation Push, after civil rights leader Jesse Jackson’s 1970s campaign to improve economic conditions for African Americans. Almost a third of Florida inmates are black, compared with fewer than 17% in the general population.

 They force them to work at gunpoint and they pay them nothing. There’s a word for that, it’s called slavery Paul Wright, Human Rights Defense Center

 One key demand is a reasonable wage for the labour inmates provide.

 “They force them to work at gunpoint and they pay them nothing,” said Paul Wright, executive director of the Florida-based Human Rights Defense Cener.

 “There’s a word for that, it’s called slavery.

 “Florida is one of the few states in the country that doesn’t pretend to pay even a nominal wage. Some states might say they pay 10 cents a day, or 15 cents an hour, or whatever, but here they make it pretty clear they don’t pay prisoners anything, they’re not going to, and prisoners are totally enslaved at every level.

 “There’s no legal way for Florida’s prisoners to earn money in the prison system.”

 The inmates also want the return of parole as an incentive for those with long-term sentences and an end to what they see as price gouging on food and other necessities.

 “One case of soup on the street cost $4, it costs us $17 on the inside,” the prisoners said in their statement. “This is highway robbery without a gun. It’s not just us that they’re taking from. It’s our families who struggle to make ends meet and send us money, they are the real victims.”

 Advocacy groups and friends and families of inmates have organised solidarity rallies outside several prisons and department of corrections offices on Monday, including in Miami and Tallahassee.

 According to the Tallahassee Democrat, officials sent an email to employees at department headquarters urging them to lock doors and stay inside during the protests.

 Tensions are running high in the Florida prison system. Last August, all facilities were placed on a three-day lockdown after unspecific threats of rioting.

 In an emailed statement to the Guardian and other media outlets, department of corrections communications director Michelle Glady did not address detailed questions about the planned response to Monday’s planned protests.

 “The department will continue to ensure the safe operation of our correctional facilities,” she said. ||||| Florida prisoners are calling for a general strike to start this week — marking the third mass action over the course of a year in protest of inhumane conditions in the state’s detention facilities. Detainees in at least eight prisons have declared their intention to stop all work on Monday — Martin Luther King Jr. Day — to demand an end to unpaid labor and price gouging in prison commissaries, as well as the restoration of parole, among other requests.

 Coordinated, nonviolent prison protests, as well as spontaneous uprisings amid deteriorating conditions, have escalated in recent years both nationwide and in Florida, which has the third-largest prison system in the country. Prisoners in the state were among the most active during a nationwide strike in September 2016, which was quickly dubbed the “largest prison strike in U.S. history.” At least 10 Florida prisons participated in that action, which was planned to coincide with the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising but started a day early when tensions flared at Holmes Correctional Institution in the Florida Panhandle. Then, in August, in response to prison activists’ calls for another show of dissent, Department of Corrections officials placed the entire state system — 143 facilities and 97,000 people — on lockdown, an unprecedented move.

 Incarcerated organizers of this week’s strike have chosen to remain anonymous to prevent retaliation, but they shared a statement outlining their demands with outside supporters. In an audio message from prison shared with The Intercept, one of the organizers described the action as a “nonviolent protest to get what we deserve from our government.”

 “They use wordplay and deceive the public about what really goes on inside the system, and we want to expose those things,” he said.

 Prison officials regularly retaliate against organizers by restricting their visitation rights and contact with other inmates, and sometimes even moving them to different facilities, which makes it harder for reports of protests to reach the public. But despite the challenges, “prisoners are pretty well-organized and coordinated inside the prisons and throughout the prison system,” said Panagioti Tsolkas, an organizer with the prisoners’ rights and environmentalist group Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons. Tsolkas, who communicates regularly with activists inside, said some of the upcoming strike’s organizers have already been placed in solitary confinement in retaliation for their efforts.

 In response to questions about the planned strike, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Corrections wrote in a statement to The Intercept that “the department will continue to ensure the safe operation of our correctional institutions.”

 “Slave Labor” and Price Gouging

 Florida prisoners work both inside the prisons — doing laundry, cooking, maintaining the facilities, and growing food — and on outside “community work squads.” According to the corrections department, in 2017 the latter group alone performed 3.15 million hours of work valued at more than $38 million statewide, including cleanup work after Hurricane Irma.

 “Our goal is to make the governor realize that it will cost the state of Florida millions of dollars daily to contract outside companies to come and cook, clean, and handle the maintenance,” the prisoners wrote in their statement. “This will cause a total BREAK DOWN.”

 Prisoners are demanding compensation for their work as opposed to “the current slave arrangement,” they wrote, in which they are paid in time deducted from their sentences. “A lot of times people will work in order to get time deducted, and then the prison guards and officials will find ways to punish someone for what the prisoners are saying are made up reasons that then extend the person’s time,” Jacqueline Azis, an attorney with the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, told The Intercept.

 “We want to be paid for the work we do, so that somebody doesn’t end up spending 10, 15, 20 years not being paid, and sent home with a bus ticket and a $50 check,” the prisoner speaking in the recording said. “We want to create an environment where someone can do their time, be rehabilitated, and enter into society with some type of hope.”

 “That would be helpful for society instead of creating a revolving door where you lock people up and just set them up for failure so that they keep coming back.”

 Prisoners are also calling for fairer pricing of goods they can purchase in prison — claiming, for example, that a case of soup that costs $4 on the outside is sold for $17 by prison commissaries (the DOC disputed that claim and provided the following list of canteen prices).

 “This is highway robbery without a gun,” the prisoners wrote. “It’s not just us that they’re taking from. It’s our families who struggle to make ends meet and send us money — they are the real victims that the state of Florida is taking advantage of.”

 Strike organizers are also calling on Florida to restore parole — which the state eliminated for non-capital felonies in 1984. “When someone is sentenced to life in prison, it means life in prison in Florida,” said Azis. “There is no chance that good behavior in prison will get someone out earlier.”

 The lack of parole has compounded the system’s colossal overcrowding, which in turn has contributed to some of the harshest and most violent prison conditions in the country. “There are so many unexplained deaths,” Lisa Graybill, deputy legal director for criminal justice reform at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told The Intercept. “They’re just appalling.”

 A prisoner works on the lawn at Dade Correctional Institution, where mentally ill prisoner Darren Rainey died in 2012, in Florida City, Florida, July 10, 2014. Photo:Lynne Sladky/AP

 Unexplained Deaths in Custody

 Deaths in Florida state prisons — including homicides and a spate of suicides — have skyrocketed in recent years, soaring from 191 in 2000 to 356 in 2016.

 Among those killed in custody was Darren Rainey, a mentally ill prisoner who was scalded to death at Dade Correctional Institution in 2012 when guards locked him in a hot shower for two hours. The water reached temperatures as high as 180 degrees, according to witnesses, including a nurse on duty that night who said that the heat controls were in a neighboring room controlled by guards.

 Following Rainey’s death, a devastating investigation by the Miami Herald detailed more unexplained and brutal deaths, as well as system-wide neglect and abuse and efforts to cover up prison officials’ wrongdoing. Randall Jordan-Aparo, an inmate with disabilities at Franklin Correctional Institution, was killed in 2010 when guards beat him and gassed him with a chemical agent after he begged for medical help for days (prison guards later took to Facebook to mock his death). Another prisoner allegedly hanged herself while her hands were tied.

 The corrections department has also been sued over its treatment of prisoners with disabilities and its failure to treat prisoners with hepatitis C, and rights groups have called on the Department of Justice — twice — to open a federal civil rights investigation into the state’s prisons. “These problems are chronic,” Graybill said. “They haven’t been addressed and they’re not going away.”

 Like most other states, Florida went on an “incarceration binge” in the 1990s, Graybill said. But unlike most other states — some 36 of which have undertaken some kind of criminal justice reform — the state has consistently refused to reconsider its policies.

 “The solution for Florida is clear,” she said. “It needs to improve the conditions of confinement in its facilities, and one way it can afford to do that is by ensuring that it is only incarcerating the people who truly need to be incarcerated.”

 “The question becomes, Why has the legislature been so unwilling or unable to do that?”

 “This Is Florida … We’ll Beat Your Ass!”

 In addition to denouncing brutal conditions of confinement, the prisoners are demanding broader criminal justice reform in Florida — including restored voting rights and a moratorium on executions.

 Florida is one of four states in the country — with Kentucky, Iowa, and Virginia — that imposes lifetime disenfranchisement for people convicted of felonies. That means 1.5 million state residents can’t vote because of their criminal history. “People who have already paid their debt to society are essentially prevented from being active citizens,” said Azis, the ACLU lawyer.

 A proposed constitutional amendment could change that — if it can garner enough support to get on the ballot — but until that passes, the only potential path to the vote is for each disenfranchised individual to personally appeal to the governor, Rick Scott. Scott grants only 8 percent of those appeals, with little transparency on the decision-making process and a backlog of 10,000 applications awaiting review, the New York Times recently reported. The process leaves restoration of the right to vote dependent on the governor’s personal convictions. In a hearing on the voting rights of a man who had been convicted of manslaughter in a drunken driving incident, for instance, Scott said he would need to think about it — then noted, with his mic accidentally still on, “That’s how my uncle died.”

 Scott also wields disproportionate power when it comes to the state’s death penalty. After newly elected prosecutor Aramis Ayala — Florida’s first black state attorney – said she would not seek the death penalty in her district, which includes Orlando, Scott moved 29 potential capital cases to a different jurisdiction. Ayala appealed, but the state’s Supreme Court ruled in the governor’s favor, forcing her to walk back her ban. Last year, Florida moved to tighten its death penalty laws by requiring a unanimous jury verdict after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the previous sentencing protocol was unconstitutional. The move made dozens of people eligible for re-sentencing, but the state limited retroactive application to those sentenced after 2002 — leaving approximately 200 on death row with sentences ineligible for review.

 Finally, prisoners planning the strike are joining the local community’s protest against a phosphate mine set to surround the Reception and Medical Center near Lake Butler, where new arrivals and inmates with medical conditions are housed. Residents and prisoners fear the health consequences of water contamination and exposure to potential carcinogens linked to phosphate mining.

 Kevin “Rashid” Johnson arrived at the Reception and Medical Center last spring.

 Johnson, a well-known prison activist, jailhouse lawyer, and prolific writer and critic of prison abuse, had already been moved from Virginia to Texas under an interstate agreement that allows for the transfer of prisoners — ostensibly for public safety reasons, but often as a punitive measure.

 That Johnson would be transferred to Florida “is a piece of evidence of how the Florida prison system is viewed even by the prison industry itself,” said Tsolkas, who has been communicating with him ahead of the upcoming strike. “Appalachia wasn’t bad enough. Texas wasn’t bad enough. Well, you’re going to the swamps.”

 At the RMC, Johnson wrote in July, a guard told him that he was “not in Virginia, or wherever else” he might have been previously. “You will answer us only as ‘no sir’ and ‘yessir,’ ‘no ma’am’ and ‘yes ma’am.’ You forget this and we’ll kick your fucking teeth out,” the guard said, according to Johnson. “This is Florida, and we’ll beat your ass! We’ll kill you!”

 That didn’t stop Johnson from continuing to expose prison abuse in Florida, or from joining the state prisoners’ organizing efforts, including ahead of Monday’s strike.

 “What the prisoners are asking for is not only completely reasonable, but should be the bare minimum of how we treat an individual that the state is in charge of caring for,” said Azis. “I would hope that whatever the DOC’s response is, it is an ethical and responsible way of addressing these real concerns.” |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Many Americans aren't working on Martin Luther King Day; others are protesting work that they describe as slave labor. The Guardian reports on an "unusual" protest organized by prisoners throughout the state of Florida that kicks off Monday. The primary grievance: that they're forced to work and paid nothing—not even the nominal 15 cents an hour some prisoners see in other states, for instance. They're seeking a fair wage and hope to arrive at that end via the monthlong Operation PUSH, during which they plan to not show up for work assignments. Said the prisoners in a statement, "Our goal is to make the governor realize that it will cost the state of Florida millions of dollars daily to contract outside companies to come and cook, clean, and handle the maintenance. This will cause a total breakdown." As for those millions: The Intercept, which reports at least eight prisons have inmates who plan to participate in the protest, notes that in addition to the work done in the prisons, "community work squads" logged 3.15 million hours of work—worth $38 million, and which included Hurricane Irma cleanup—throughout the state in 2017.


News article:

Advocate will move Bombay High Court on Tuesday. Women, who are lodged in Yerwada jail, killed kids between 1990 and 1996.

 The Kolhapur sisters, who were set to become the first women convicts to be hanged in Independent India, might get temporary reprieve. Challenging the rejection of their mercy petitions, the advocate Sudeep Jaiswal will move the Bombay High Court on Tuesday.

 The sisters, Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit were sentenced to death in 2001 for kidnapping 13 children and killing nine of them between June 1990 and October 1996. They were helped by their mother Anjana Gavit and Renuka's husband Kiran Shinde. They forced the children to help them commit petty thefts and pick pockets. Anjana Gavit died in jail while Kiran Shinde became an approver.

 Till the time the court decides on the petition, their execution will be stayed. Speaking to Mumbai Mirror, Jaiswal said he has informed the jail authorities about the move in writing.

 Additional Director General of Police (Jails) Meeran Borwankar said, "We are following all legal procedures and the recent Supreme Court guidelines."

 The sisters, lodged at Yerwada Jail, were notified about the rejection of their mercy petition verbally earlier in August and the 14-day buffer period before their execution ends this Saturday.

 According to Jaiswal, the order sent to the jail authorities read, "The report of communication of rejection of mercy petition of condemned prisoner shall be submitted with physical and mental health report."A minimum buffer period of 14 days is given between the receipt of communication of rejection of mercy petition and execution, so that the convicts can prepare themselves, settle affairs with family members or avail any judicial remedy.

 Meanwhile, Jaiswal said, "I met the two sisters recently. They are in solitary confinement. Their physical condition has deteriorated and they look like living skeletons. Their weight has dropped below 35 kg. A Supreme Court judgment states convicts in ill health cannot be executed." He added, "In the case of Nalini, the key accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the execution was stayed because there was a delay of two years. In this case, there has been a delay of over six years." ||||| Curtains are finally set to come down on one of India’s most squalid crime sagas with President Pranab Mukherjee last month rejecting the mercy petitions of half-sisters Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit.

 The duo, along with their mother Anjana Gavit, stand accused of the kidnapping of 13 children and the murder of 10 of them across various districts in Western Maharashtra. In 2006, they were convicted by the Supreme Court of five of those murders.

 Since then, a Damocles sword has been hanging over the fate of the duo, set to earn notoriety as the first women to be hanged in the history of Independent India.

 The two-week buffer period before their execution came to an end last Saturday.

 ‘No intimation yet’

 “There has been no intimation on the issue from the State Home Ministry as yet. There has been no word on the black warrant,” said Yogesh Desai, Superintendent, Yerwada Central Jail, while refusing to comment on the preparations.

 The sisters, hailing from Kolhapur, were initiated into crime by their mother while still in their teens. They were sentenced to death by the Kolhapur Sessions Court in 2001. Since then, they have been languishing in Yerwada Jail.

 Between 1990 and 1996, they allegedly killed nine children — all under the age of 10 — by starving them or banging their heads (especially those of toddlers) against walls or electricity poles. The kidnappings and murders were spread over Pune, Thane, Kalyan, Kolhapur, and Nashik.

 “The sisters’ modus operandi was using small children, often toddlers, as diversions to distract the public while one of them was engaged in stealing purses. When in the danger of being caught, the other used to throw or bang the child to the ground or any hard surface. The object was to elicit sympathy by manipulating the public’s emotions,” says human rights lawyer and activist, Asim Sarode.

 Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Sarode, who, at one time, assisted the Apex Court judge with the case, recounts the eerie calmness with which Renuka Shinde answered his questions about the murders, all the time stroking a stray cat.

 “In one of their particularly gruesome murders, they hung a two-year-old upside down, bashed his head against the wall and chopped him to pieces. They then went for a movie at a local theatre in Kolhapur, eating bhel puri. All the while, the bag, with the chopped remains remained under their feet,” he says.

 “While I’m professionally and personally against the capital punishment, this is indeed one of the rarest of the rare cases where the perpetrators deserve the death sentence,” remarked Mr. Sarode.

 Files appeal

 Following the end of the buffer period, the duo has filed an appeal at the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court. According to the sisters’ defence counsel in Kolhapur, Manik Mulik, the murders had been committed by their mother, Anjana, who died two years after the duo’s arrest in 1996.

 “The case against the sisters primarily rests on the statement of Renuka’s husband, Kiran Shinde, who turned approver naming Anjana as having carried out the kidnappings and killings. As Anjana died even before the trial began, the police made him change his statement in which he blamed his wife (Renuka) and sister-in-law (Seema Gavit),” said Mr. Mulik.

  |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Serial killer sisters, who kidnapped and murdered at least five children, are poised to become the first women hanged in India, reports the Washington Post. “This is indeed one of the rarest of the rare cases where the perpetrators deserve the death sentence,” a human rights lawyer tells the Hindu. Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit were charged in 2001 with 13 kidnappings and 10 murders, and convicted of five killings, reports the Telegraph. Their killing spree began in 1990 when the girls were teen pickpockets and their mother told them to kidnap her ex's daughter, their half-sister. After that, mother and daughters kidnapped street kids ages 1 to 5, turned them into pickpockets and decoys, then killed them. Their mother died in prison, the Mumbai Mirror reports. Some of the sisters' ghastly crimes: They killed an infant by bashing his head against an electric pole, dropped a 7-month old to stop its crying, bludgeoned a boy while he hung upside down, and dismembered another and stuffed his parts in a bag, the Post reports. The killing ended as it began—with a revenge kidnapping and murder in 1996, also plotted by their mother as revenge against her ex. The 9-year-old, his daughter, was dumped in a field and an eventual investigation led to the sisters' other crimes. The sisters say they're innocent and wrongly convicted. A recent plea for mercy was rejected.


Summarize this article:

EARLY NEXT YEAR. MORE BREAKING NEWS WE ARE FOLLOWING. A JUDGE RULED THE THREE SIBLINGS OF A 19 MONTH OLD BABY BURNED TO DEATH WILL STAY IN FOSTER CARE. CATH YEAR HERNANDEZ WAS INSIDE THE COURTROOM FOR THE HEARING. WHAT ELSE ARE WE LEARNING FROM THAT? Reporter: CPS CALLED THIS EMERGENCY HEARING TODAY AFTER THEY BELIEVE THAT THOSE CHILDREN ARE IN DANGER. AND THOSE CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE IN THE CUSTODY OF THEIR PARENTS. SO TODAY THAT JUDGE AGREED. TODAY IN A HEARING A JUDGE ORDERED A FIVE-YEAR-OLD GIRL AND HER THREE-YEAR-OLD BROTHER AND SISTER TO STAY IN FOSTER CARE. WHILE THEY WERE HOME ALONE MONDAY NIGHT, THEIR 19-MONTHS-OLD SISTER MANAGEELED TO GET INSIDE THE OVEN AND IT WAS TURNED ON. SHE DIED FROM SEVERE BURNS. CPS TOLD THE JUDGE THE FIVE-YEAR-OLD GIRL HAS GONE BACK AND FORTH, BUT CLAIMS TO HAVE BEEN SLEEPING WHEN IT ALL HAPPENED. THE CASE WORKER ALSO SAYS ONE OF THE THREE-YEAR-OLDS TOOK RESPONSIBILITY FOR PUTTING THE BABY IN THE OVEN. CPS SAYS IT WILL CONTINUE TALKING WITH THE THREE CHILDREN. WE'RE STILL GOING TO BE WORKING WITH THE CHILDREN. PART OF THAT'S GOING TO BE THE COUNSELING TO SEE IF WE CAN HELP THEM DEALING WITH THOSE MEMORIES AND WHAT HAPPENED. Reporter: INVESTIGATORS SAY THE MOTHER WAS AT WORK MONDAY NIGHT AND LEFT THE FOUR CHILDREN WITH HER BOYFRIEND. POLICE QUESTIONED THE MOTHER, WHO HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT OF PREVIOUS CPS CASES, ALONG WITH HER BOYFRIEND. IT'S UNCLEAR IF THEY'LL FACE CHARGES. THE ATTORNEY FOR THE CHILDREN SAYS BOTH THREE-YEAR-OLDS ARE IN ONE HOME AND THE FIVE-YEAR-OLD IS IN ANOTHER. THE NEXT HEARING TO TALK ABOUT THE CUSTODY OF THE CHILDREN IS DECEMBER 2. REPORTING LIVE IN DOWNTOWN

 HOUSTON -

 Three siblings of a 19-month-old girl who was burned to death inside a northeast Houston apartment on Monday will be placed in foster care.

 Case workers from Child Protective Services filed an emergency hearing to take custody of the three children. According to CPS, there have been previous reports made concerning the mother.

 According to homicide detectives from the Houston Police Department, the mother was at work and left her three children with her boyfriend at the Angel Ridge Apartments off the 8600 block of Sterlingshire Street.

 The children -- a 5-year-old, two 3-year-olds and a 19-month-old girl -- were home alone when they started to play with the oven. Emergency crews arrived after midnight, but there was nothing they could do to save the baby, J'zyra Thompson.

 "Upon their arrival they found a deceased 1-year-old," HPD homicide detective Ronda Pemberton said. "We found the baby next to the oven. It appears to be accidental."

 On Wednesday, authorities focused on her three siblings who were a 5-year-old girl, 3-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy.

 "The court found that there was an immediate danger to those three children and granted us emergency custody," said County Attorney Amy Strickland.

 "Both of them had left the children home alone. What was reported was that they had left to get a pizza. The children were left at home for an extended amount of time and that's when obviously the child somehow managed to be inside an oven," said Estella Olguin with CPS.

 "She was a sweet baby," said Gina Dennis, the child's grandmother. "This is unexplainable. I have no words."

 CPS told the judge the 5-year-old girl claims to have been sleeping when it happened. The case worker also said one of the 3-year-old children took responsibility for putting the baby in the oven.

 "We're still going to be working with the children. Part of that is going to be counseling to see if we can help them deal with those memories and what happened," said Strickland.

 The children's attorney said the 5-year-old was in one home and the other two children were in another home.

 Police questioned the mother and her boyfriend. It's unclear if they'll face charges.

 The next hearing was set for Dec. 2. ||||| Fredrick Price came to the apartment complex on Sterlingshire looking for his two kids Thursday morning, both three years old. When Eyewitness News first talked to him, he had no idea they were among the children left alone in unit 115 Monday night. That's where 19-month-old J'Zyra Thompson died after being placed in an oven."I need to know where they are, I haven't heard from my children in months," said Price. " I've been trying to contact Racquel."Price is the ex-boyfriend of Racquel Thompson. Police believe she left her four kids, all under five years old, home alone Monday night. That's when little J'Zyra, seen on Thompson's Facebook page with big eyes and a bright smile, ended up in the oven. The toddler burned to death with three other kids in the home. She died without ever knowing a father."She was a cute little baby, I just didn't know if that was my daughter or not," said Price, who has never taken a paternity test relating to her ex-girlfriend's youngest child.Court records obtained by Eyewitness News show Child Protective Services are concerned with a number of issues relating to Thompson and her boyfriend. Records show Thompson told officials she often left the kids home alone to drive her boyfriend to work at a pizza place. Monday night, Thompson and her boyfriend left to go get Dominos Pizza for takeout, and stopped at Walgreens to pick up a prescription. Case workers say the couple left the four kids home alone without telling a grandmother who lived in the same apartment complex."It's very irresponsible, someone should have been here or I should have gotten a phone call, come and get my children." Price says his two children had been staying with Thompson because he lost his job a few months ago. He says he has since tried to contact Thompson on the phone and via Facebook, but she has not responded.Court records show prices two kids, just three years old, told investigators that one of them put the baby in the oven, and the other turned it on. Records show the children told CPS workers they made the oven "hot", and that the baby was kicking the oven door while inside. Records also show Thompson tried CPR when she got home. But it was too late, the child had multiple burns.CPS said no suitable relatives can care for the three surviving children from the home, so they are currently in foster care. Thompson also has an older child who lives with his father. In addition, she is seven months pregnant with her current boyfriend's child. Thompson apparently also drove the kids without a license nor car seats.Meanwhile, Price asked Eyewitness News about his two children. We told him they are in foster care, and he told us he will contact CPS to see if he can take custody of the children."I have to go get them. I have to go and get them," he said.No charges have yet been filed against Thompson or her boyfriend, though CPS workers said in their court filings that criminal charges are expected. |||||

– An absolutely awful story out of Houston, where police say four children were left alone Monday night and their mother came home to find one of them dead. The two 3-year-old siblings of the 19-month-old little girl who died, J'Zyra Thompson, told authorities that one of them put the baby in the oven and the other one turned it on and made it "hot," ABC 13 reports. J'Zyra, they said, kicked the oven door while she was trapped inside. The oldest sibling, 5, was apparently asleep at the time, Click2Houston reports. When Racqual Thompson, the children's mother, returned home from going out with her boyfriend to get takeout pizza and pick up a prescription, she attempted CPR, but it was too late. J'Zyra died of multiple burns. Police say Racqual Thompson had left the children without informing a grandmother who also lived at the apartment complex. The three surviving children are in foster care, as CPS could not find suitable relatives to care for them. Criminal charges are expected, though none have yet been filed. (In Kentucky, an arrest has been made in the killing of a girl who went missing at a football game.)