Hispanic population boom fuels rising U.S. diversity

The nation is becoming even more diverse: More than one third of its population belongs to a minority group, and Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment. The U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday that the minority population reached an estimated 104.6 million — or 34 percent of the nation’s total population — on July 1, 2008, compared to 31 percent when the Census was taken in 2000

Share

Defense: Military missed soldier’s symptoms before rape, killings

Defense lawyers trying to save their client from the death penalty argued Tuesday that former U.S. soldier Steven Green exhibited clear symptoms of acute stress disorder in Iraq and that a military psychiatric nurse-practitioner failed to diagnose the troubled infantryman and pull him out of combat

Share

Sheikh reportedly detained pending torture investigation

A member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi who was captured on videotape torturing an Afghan grain dealer has reportedly been detained, a senior U.S. State Department official told CNN Saturday. The official said the government of the United Arab Emirates, which includes Abu Dhabi as one of its seven emirates, told the State Department that Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan is under house arrest pending an investigation, but that the United States has not independently confirmed the development.

Share

Facebook urged to remove Holocaust-denial groups

Part of the power of social networking is the ability to form communities with like-minded individuals. But what happens when those communities are offensive to others That issue is at the heart of attempts by a Dallas, Texas, attorney to have social-networking site Facebook remove pages for Holocaust deniers. The Holocaust Denial movement seeks to deny or minimize the Holocaust, in which Nazis killed about six million European Jews during World War II

Share

Mexico lowers swine flu alert as businesses in capital reopen

Mexico lowered its swine flu alert one notch Thursday as more than 6 million students returned to classes and thousands of shuttered businesses reopened their doors. The alert went from orange (elevated) to yellow (medium). Mexico has reported 1,112 laboratory-confirmed cases, including 42 deaths, according to the World Health Organization

Share

Texas police will return cash in case that prompted lawsuit

Authorities who seized $8,500 and assorted jewelry from a Tennessee man after a traffic stop in east Texas have agreed to return the property after his case drew attention from CNN. Roderick Daniels said police in Tenaha, Texas, took the money in October 2007 after they stopped him for doing 37 mph in a 35-mph zone. He said police threatened him with money-laundering charges and promised not to prosecute if he signed over the cash, which Daniels said was to buy a new car

Share