WISCONSIN – A ninth grader from western Wisconsin was suspended for placing “some kind of KKK symbol” and a noose on a Black student’s desk. The perpetrator was a white male who admitted the racist act. He claims to have done it as a joke. The 15 year recipient did not think it was funny. She is just one of three Black students at the 450 student school.

BY KUSH AZRAEL

Africa

SUDAN - A 2,000 year-old relief carved with an image of what appears to be a, stylishly overweight, princess has been discovered in a palace in the ancient city of Meroe, in Sudan. At the time the relief was made, Meroe was the center of a kingdom named Kush, its borders stretching as far north as the southern edge of Egypt. It wasn’t unusual for queens (sometimes referred to as “Candaces”) to rule. The sandstone relief shows a woman smiling, her hair carefully dressed and an earring in her left era. She appears to have a double chin and some fat on her neck, something considered at the time among royal women from Kush.

IVORY COAST – Ivory Coast’s president declared three days of mourning and promised a speedy investigation into the New Year’s Day stampede that killed 60 people, most of the women and children. It all happened about 1 a.m. after a New Year’s Eve fireworks show in the former capital of Abidjan. The dead includes 26 children, 28 women, and 6 men.

Middle East

ISRAEL – Tens of thousands of Africans who have entered the country of Israel will be kicked out. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that Israel has halted the flow of African migrants into Israel over the past seven months. He made his statements while visiting a fence Israel built on the border with Egypt to keep migrants out. About 60,000 Africans have entered Israel in recent years with some seeking asylum and others looking for jobs.

United States

WISCONSIN – A ninth grader from western Wisconsin was suspended for placing “some kind of KKK symbol” and a noose on a Black student’s desk. The perpetrator was a white male who admitted the racist act. He claims to have done it as a joke. The 15 year recipient did not think it was funny. She is just one of three Black students at the 450 student school.

NEW YORK – 59 year - old Elzina Brown became the first murder victim of 2013 after she tried to protect her 22 year-old daughter during a domestic dispute. Brown reportedly came home from work for lunch and found her daughter Diamond Dunn and her boyfriend Raymond Mayrant arguing over their 4 –year- old daughter. Mayrant pulled out a gun and aimed at Dunn. Brown got between them and was shot in the chest. She died at the scene. Dunn was also shot in the face.

TEXAS – 56 yea-old Jerry Hartfield was still a young man when his murder conviction was overturned. Shortly after, he was taken off death row. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Hartfield’s murder conviction in 1980 because it found a potential juror was improperly dismissed for concerns about the death penalty. The Gov. Mark White commuted his sentence to life in prison. A federal judge in Houston recently ruled that Hartfield’s conviction and sentence ceased to exist when the appeals court overturned them meaning there was no sentence for White to commute. But Hartfield wont go free any time soon because the state has challenged a 5^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision, arguing Hartfield missed a one year window in which to appeal aspects of his case.