(Photo: AP Photo/Office of U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo)

In today’s top news, a Black WWII veteran finally gets his due, Nigeria fights to fend off terrorist attacks, and a post-Christmas shopping day at the Mall of America turns into an all-out brawl.

Black Navy veteran receives medal for WWII action. [BET]

More than 100 Sears and Kmart stores to close soon. [MSNBC]

Some members of Congress just keep getting richer. [NYT]

Nigeria is still reeling from deadly Christmas Day bombings. [BET]

Egypt puts an end to “virginity tests” for detained female protesters. [CNN]

A fired man catches a lawsuit from his former company over his Twitter followers. [BBC]

Post-Christmas shopping turned into a brawl at the Mall of America. [StarTribune]

Man returns $10,000 to teach his children a lesson about honesty. [AP]

Atlanta rapper Young Vito surrenders in Slim Dunkin murder case. [BET]

Iran seeks the death penalty for an alleged U.S. spy. [FOX]

As BET.com reports, NFL star Braylon Edwards punched 28-year-old Edward Givens in the face outside of a Cleveland area nightclub early Monday morning. And “The King” is not happy about it.

NBA superstar LeBron James called Edwards childish for punching his friend who is a promoter at the night club, according to ESPN.com.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has James entire statement.

Givens said he was attacked because of his friendship with James.

Givens told Cleveland.com ”Braylon comes up and started saying things, degrading me,” Givens said. “He said if it wasn’t for LeBron [James] or the Four Horsemen [James' friends and business partners], I wouldn’t have what I have, nor would I be able to get girls. Everyone knows Braylon has a problem with LeBron. Whatever jealousy he has with LeBron, he felt he needed to take it out on me.”

China will send ships to African waters to fight pirates. China will send ships to the waters near the Horn of Africa to monitor an area that has been prone to many pirate attacks, reports CNN. China hasn’t sent ships that far away from the country in centuries, but the recent surge of pirate attacks on China’s ships has pushed them into action. No word yet on how many ships the country plans to deploy, but officials did reveal that the operation would last three months. The waters have gone unmonitored, but the United Nation’s Security Council recently passed a resolution that would let an international coalition to go after pirates onto land (although China, a member of the council, hasn’t committed any forces yet). Just this year, almost 100 ships have been attacked by pirates in the waters near Somalia, with 40 of them being hijacked successfully, reports the news service. Pirates battled with crew members of a Chinese ship for four hours Wednesday before coalition helicopters and ships kept the attackers at bay.
Rwandan genocide mastermind is sentenced. The man behind the mass genocide in Rwanda during the ’90s has been given a life sentence by a United Nations tribunal, reports the BBC. Theoneste Bagosora and two co-defendants were found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Bagosora and former military commanders Anatole Nsegiyumya and Alloys Ntbakuze were found to have led a committee that planned the killing of ethnic Tutsis. More than 800,000 people were killed during in the nation’s genocide. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the sentences, a result of the first convictions of anyone involved with the genocide, a “major step in the fight against impunity.” The court rejected the argument from the defense that the mass killings were not organized and, therefore, could not be considered genocide, reports the BBC. Bagosora will appeal the verdict, according to his lawyer.  The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is based in Tanzania.

Squabble over cutting in line sparked Wal-Mart trampling death. Authorities say a no-cutting-in-line fight between two large groups of shoppers helped spark the after-Thanksgiving stampede in which a Wal-Mart security guard on Long Island, N.Y., was trampled to death, according to Newsday. Shoppers who remained inside their vehicles in the parking lot until the Valley Stream store’s special 5 a.m. opening apparently clashed with people who had stood outside in line for hours, police said on Wednesday. Read the rest here.

Dallas Cowboys’ “Pacman” Jones involved in hotel fight.

Dallas police were reportedly called to break up a fight between troubled Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones and his bodyguards at a Dallas hotel Tuesday evening, according to multiple sources. No charge was filed against Jones, and neither the hotel nor the Cowboys would comment, reports the Fort Worth Star Telegram. “I don’t have any comment,” Jones’ agent, Worrick Robinson, who is based in Nashville, told the paper. “I don’t have any knowledge that anything happened. I’ve done my due diligence and I’m not satisfied that anything happened with Adam Jones. I know there are rumors. I haven’t put any stock into any of these rumors except they are just rumors.” Read the rest here.

South African dog fights another dog to save boy. In South Africa, a Rottweiler fought off a pit bull who was mauling a little boy, reports the BBC. Two-year-old Tshepang Taeli and his grandmother were walking down the street when the pit bull attacked him, viciously dragging him down the road. Several residents kicked the dog to try to get him off of the child but he would not let go. “I have never felt so much pain in my life. The dog was attacking him and I was trying to release him and I could not,” said the boy’s grandmother. That’s when one neighbor went to get his Rottweiler, Blade, who helped save the boy’s life. “He fought the other dog to free the child. Blade is very protective,” Blade’s owner, Ricky Veludo told a local newspaper. The child was taken to the hospital, where he is now recovering from suffering bites on his face, legs and stomach. Police are investigating the attack.

Zimbabwe police arrest opposition lawmakers

Zimbabwe police arrested more opposition members Wednesday, saying they were connected to the violence before the country’s runoff election in June, reports CNN. Police insist the arrests of Movement for Democratic Change members, five in total, are not politically motivated. “These (parliament members) have been on the police wanted list which we made public. We have been looking for them for a long time since the offenses were committed,” a police spokesman said. But MDC officials are not buying it. They think the government along with longtime leader Robert Mugabe is just trying to cut down on the number of opposition members in parliament. “The arrests are harassment and an attempt to undermine our parliamentary majority,” MDC’s information director said. “We expected that retribution after having shown Mugabe that he is not welcome in parliament.” Mugabe was booed and heckled when he spoke in front of the body Tuesday. He still remains optimistic that a power sharing agreement, between himself and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai can be reached. The two are set to resume talks, mediated by South African president Thabo Mbeki, this week.

Delegate is called “Uncle Tom” … ready to fight.

What did you call me?!  Democratic National Convention Committee press secretary Delmarie Cobb was ready to fight after being called an “Uncle Tom.”  Cobb said the racially loaded slur came from  Illinois Senate President Emil Jones while discussing her support for Clinton Saturday night. “I was called an ‘Uncle Tom’ by Emil Jones in the lobby of the hotel, right in front of aldermen Freddrenna Lyle, Leslie Hairston and Latasha Thomas,” Cobb, a member of Clinton’s Illinois Steering Committee, told The Chicago Sun-Times. “I walked over to him and asked him, ‘What did you just call me?’” Jones, who is also Black, denies the slur. He says he was referring to Cobb and other Clinton supporters as “doubting Thomases.”  But Cobb doubts that explanation. She says when she confronted Jones, he did not indicate that she had misunderstood him. Cobb told the newspaper that those are “fighting words” and unacceptable.

Live from Denver. BET News goes to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colo. for this historical event. Check out BET’s complete political coverage at BET.com/News.  

The uninsured get the worse health care. People who are uninsured received about half as much care as those who are fully insured, according to a report appearing in Monday’s online edition of Health Affairs. A person who is uninsured all year will average $1,686 in medical costs, while someone who is privately insured will average $3,915, says the report by Jack Hadley, of George Mason University, and John Holahan, Teresa Coughlin and Dawn Miller, of the Urban Institute, who analyzed figures on medical spending in people who are insured versus those who are uninsured. The uninsured pay an average of $583 (35 percent) of their costs, while the insured pay an average of $681 (17 percent), the researchers point out. “The uninsured receive a lot less care than the insured, and they pay a greater percentage of it out of pocket,” study author Hadley, a senior health services researcher at George Mason, said in a news release from the journal. “Contrary to popular myth, they are not all free riders,” he added.  The researchers also estimated that the federal government pays for about three-quarters ($43 billion) of the uncompensated care bill, including roughly $18 billion in special payments to hospitals by Medicare and Medicaid; $15 billion in tax appropriations and indigent care programs by state and local governments; and almost $10 billion in spending by the Veterans Health Administration, the Indian Health Service, community health centers and similar direct-care programs, Forbes online points out. “From society’s perspective, covering the uninsured is still a good investment,” Hadley says. “Failure to act in the near term will only make it more expensive to cover the uninsured in the future, while adding to the amount of lost productivity from not insuring all Americans.”

One in four Americans struggles with health care costs. Roughly one in four Americans (24 percent) continues to struggle with health care costs, according to the latest Kaiser election 2008 tracking poll. Health care ranks as a “serious problem,” above paying for food (18 percent), problems with debt (16 percent) and paying the rent or mortgage (15 percent), and below paying for gas (37 percent) or getting a good-paying job or raise in pay (26 percent). Half of the people who were uninsured say that paying for health care is a serious concern. Members of two minority groups, Hispanics (39 percent) and African Americans (35 percent), say problems paying for care are particularly a concern.

Mercer University gets $3.1 million to fight diabetes. The National Institutes of Health awarded Dr. John Boltri, a physician at the Mercer University School of Medicine, $3.1 million for church-based diabetes-prevention and education programs. Mercer medical professors will be working with The Medical Center of Central Georgia in a five-year study that will launch next spring, said Boltri, who conducted earlier research showing that the rate of diabetes was 50 percent higher in Blacks than in Whites. “We’re going into African-American churches and doing screenings for diabetes,” said Boltri, a physician at the Family Health Center in Macon. “We’re looking to see who has pre-diabetes.” Boltri said his research started a few years ago when he was looking at ways to prevent diabetes. His studies showed a higher risk in Blacks. Working with researchers from the University of Connecticut-Hartford, Boltri and his team developed a detailed program, which will use a combination of education and religion to try to reduce the risk of the disease. The educational component involves improving diets, reducing fat, increasing physical activity and making the participants more aware of the complications diabetics face. “We’re going to ask people to keep a diary of the foods they eat and switch to lower-fat foods,” he said. Monique Davis-Smith, another researcher from Mercer’s Department of Family Medicine, said religion will also play a part in the program. “We’re going to encourage prayer as part of the program and bringing knowledge of one’s own faith [to the program],” she said. “We’re encouraging people to lean on their faith.”

The uninsured get the worse health care. People who are uninsured received about half as much care as those who are fully insured, according to a report appearing in Monday’s online edition of Health Affairs. A person who is uninsured all year will average $1,686 in medical costs, while someone who is privately insured will average $3,915, says the report by Jack Hadley, of George Mason University, and John Holahan, Teresa Coughlin and Dawn Miller, of the Urban Institute, who analyzed figures on medical spending in people who are insured versus those who are uninsured. The uninsured pay an average of $583 (35 percent) of their costs, while the insured pay an average of $681 (17 percent), the researchers point out. “The uninsured receive a lot less care than the insured, and they pay a greater percentage of it out of pocket,” study author Hadley, a senior health services researcher at George Mason, said in a news release from the journal. “Contrary to popular myth, they are not all free riders,” he added.  The researchers also estimated that the federal government pays for about three-quarters ($43 billion) of the uncompensated care bill, including roughly $18 billion in special payments to hospitals by Medicare and Medicaid; $15 billion in tax appropriations and indigent care programs by state and local governments; and almost $10 billion in spending by the Veterans Health Administration, the Indian Health Service, community health centers and similar direct-care programs, Forbes online points out. “From society’s perspective, covering the uninsured is still a good investment,” Hadley says. “Failure to act in the near term will only make it more expensive to cover the uninsured in the future, while adding to the amount of lost productivity from not insuring all Americans.”

One in four Americans struggles with health care costs. Roughly one in four Americans (24 percent) continues to struggle with health care costs, according to the latest Kaiser election 2008 tracking poll. Health care ranks as a “serious problem,” above paying for food (18 percent), problems with debt (16 percent) and paying the rent or mortgage (15 percent), and below paying for gas (37 percent) or getting a good-paying job or raise in pay (26 percent). Half of the people who were uninsured say that paying for health care is a serious concern. Members of two minority groups, Hispanics (39 percent) and African Americans (35 percent), say problems paying for care are particularly a concern.

Mercer University gets $3.1 million to fight diabetes. The National Institutes of Health awarded Dr. John Boltri, a physician at the Mercer University School of Medicine, $3.1 million for church-based diabetes-prevention and education programs. Mercer medical professors will be working with The Medical Center of Central Georgia in a five-year study that will launch next spring, said Boltri, who conducted earlier research showing that the rate of diabetes was 50 percent higher in Blacks than in Whites. “We’re going into African-American churches and doing screenings for diabetes,” said Boltri, a physician at the Family Health Center in Macon. “We’re looking to see who has pre-diabetes.” Boltri said his research started a few years ago when he was looking at ways to prevent diabetes. His studies showed a higher risk in Blacks. Working with researchers from the University of Connecticut-Hartford, Boltri and his team developed a detailed program, which will use a combination of education and religion to try to reduce the risk of the disease. The educational component involves improving diets, reducing fat, increasing physical activity and making the participants more aware of the complications diabetics face. “We’re going to ask people to keep a diary of the foods they eat and switch to lower-fat foods,” he said. Monique Davis-Smith, another researcher from Mercer’s Department of Family Medicine, said religion will also play a part in the program. “We’re going to encourage prayer as part of the program and bringing knowledge of one’s own faith [to the program],” she said. “We’re encouraging people to lean on their faith.”

Blacks in the South have higher HIV rates. Blacks in the South have higher HIV and AIDS rates. Why? Read more at BET.com/Body & Soul.

Be Sickle Smart program hits major cities.

The Be Sickle Smart program is on the road, and likely will be in a city near you. “American Idol” season two Winner Ruben Studdard hosted the Be Sickle Smart Education Day in Jacksonville, Fla., last Saturday to raise awareness of the risk of iron overload, a serious condition that affects people living with sickle-cell disease. Transfusional iron overload is a serious condition that can arise from having 10 or more blood transfusions over one’s lifetime (which is common among people who suffer from sickle-cell disease). If left untreated, iron overload can lead to serious health problems, including liver and heart damage, to name a few. The nationwide Be Sickle Smart campaign is a community-based health education effort leveraging advocacy groups, churches, local media and community leaders to raise awareness of sickle-cell disease and iron overload. The program will continue in Birmingham on Sept. 13 and Chicago on Sept. 18, with other stops planned later for Atlanta, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Philadelphia. More than 70,000 people in America have sickle-cell disease. One in 12 African Americans carries the trait for sickle-cell disease. For more information, go to Ask About Iron.com.

Is L.A. driving the trans fat bandwagon off a cliff?
Vital Signs: Cities and states are helping you cut the fat from your diets. Cities like Los Angeles are going as far as to stop fast food restaurants from opening in poor communities to lessen the number of unhealthy restaurants there. But do we really need that kind of help in the fat fight, or is the city going too far? Vital Signs has more.