Egyptian teacher is tried for student’s death. The Egyptian teacher who allegedly beat a student to death for not doing his homework, recently appeared in court to face charges, reports the BBC. The 23-year-old teacher, Haitham Nabeel Abdelhamid, allegedly took the 11-year-old boy outside of the classroom and hit him hard in the stomach. The boy, Islam Amr Badr (shown above), died at the hospital later after suffering heart failure as result of the injury to his stomach that dropped his blood pressure, according to testimony from the medical staff who examined him. He also had two broken ribs. The court also heard from classmates, who said Badr was hit as punishment for not doing his math homework. The teacher says he didn’t mean to hurt his student and that he only wanted to discipline him. The incident, at Alexandria’s Saad Othman Primary School happened back in October and shined a spotlight on the nation’s struggling state education system. The nation’s education minister will be called to the stand. And Islam’s father, Amr Badr Ibrahim, feels the whole system should be held accountable for his son’s death. “The minister of education should be the first person to be accused – how can he agree to let such a young man teach children?” he asked. “The problem is the teaching and the teachers because they cannot find good teachers,” he said. Young and inexperienced teachers in the state education system have a hard time in the classroom, many often trying to get control of 60 to100 students, reports the BBC. The government says it’s introducing reforms such as new teacher tests and banning corporal punishment.

Trinidad’s Prime Minister is doing well after surgery. Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning reportedly is doing well after his cancer surgery at the Cimeq hospital in Havana, reports Caribbean Net. Manning underwent the surgery last Wednesday to remove a malignant tumor from his kidney. He called his office Friday, telling employees that he was doing well and was supposed to be removed from the Intensive Care Unit soon, reports the Trinidad Express. He also told his secretary that he was up and walking a day after his surgery. Manning will stay in the hospital for at least one more week for care.

Truck crash in Jamaica leaves 14 dead. A truck crash this weekend killed 14 people in Portland, Jamaica, reports the Jamaican Gleaner. The truck, which was transporting merchants, along with produce, to Kingston’s Coronation market, overturned and fell into a precipice, trapping several who were on board under the heavy vehicle. A 10-year-old boy is among the deceased. The truck reportedly had been trying to back up on a narrow round to let a car pass. Rescue teams from the police, Ministry of Health, Port Antonio Hospital, Pihl Construction Company and some residents worked together for 15 hours to remove bodies from the wreckage. Seven of the truck’s passengers were rescued. Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding flew to the accident scene by helicopter along with a local Portland official. “This is a major catastrophe,” Golding said. “My condolence goes out to the bereaved families, and I have to thank the brave citizens who used bottle torches so as to see access to the pathway down to the precipice to render assistance to their fellow men,” he continued. The government will make arrangements to help the families of the deceased. Police are still looking for the truck’s driver.

The Pennsylvania youths allegedly hurled racial slurs at the Mexican immigrant.

Three teens accused of beating to death a Mexican immigrant in a tiny Pennsylvania coal-mining town last month must stand trial, a judge ruled Monday. The judge agreed with prosecutors that there is enough evidence to try 17-year-old Colin Walsh and 16-year-old Brandon Piekarsky on charges of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation; Derrick Donchak, 18, will stand trial for ethnic intimidation, aggravated assault and other charges. All three young men are football players at Shenandoah Valley High School, which is about an hour and a half northwest of Philadelphia. According to witnesses, the defendants yelled, “Dirty Mexican!” and other racial epithets as they kicked and bludgeoned Luis Ramirez, even as he lay motionless in the street. Ramirez, who fathered a child with a local White teen, was frequently called racial slurs by Whites in the community, some youths testified at an earlier pretrial hearing. Seventeen-year-old Ben Lawson testified that “Ramirez was fighting with one of the suspects, Derrick M. Donchak, when another, Colin Walsh, sucker-punched the victim,” The Associated Press reported. “A third suspect, Brandon Piekarsky, then kicked Ramirez in the head while he lay motionless in the street.” Lawyers for Piekarsky and Walsh have said there is no evidence to support the homicide charges.

Black chief calls the incident an outrage – the police union disagrees

Police in West Palm Beach, Fla., have released a videotape of officers kicking and beating a Hispanic suspect that is so shocking that the chief of police, in a public rebuke of her officers’ actions, is at odds with the police union over the amount of force used. “To see this actually happens, obviously I’m not pleased with it at all. We are held at a much higher standard than anyone else,” said Police Chief Delsa Bush, an African American. On the video, which is only the latest in a string of police beatings caught live in recent years, Louis Schwartz and Kurt Graham can be seen kicking a handcuffed suspect on the ground outside of a drugstore. A few seconds later, the suspect, Pablo Venezuela, still cuffed but now standing, is repeatedly punched in the face by another policeman, Jason Zangara. All three officers are White. Lawrence Fagan, a police union attorney representing the three officers, says, “It is our position that the force they used was proper. They feel they used that force necessary to diffuse the situation and only the force that was legal and proper. Period.” Venezuela, who is suing the West Palm Beach Police Department, received cuts over his eye and needed several stitches, according to the arrest report. Early on in the videotape, a man who appears to be Venezuela is seen using pepper spray as a weapon to rob oxycodone Graham resigned last month, while Schwartz and Zangara are on paid administrative leave. Bush has not yet announced any discipline for the officers.

Racial tensions have reached a boiling point in the Pennsylvania coal town. Tw

Two youths were charged with homicide Friday following the beating death of a Hispanic man in a Pennsylvania coal town where racial tension has reached a boiling point in recent months. Colin J. Walsh, 17, and Brandon J. Piekarsky, 16, both of Shenandoah Heights, were charged Friday in connection with the death of a 25-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico. Eduardo Ramirez Zavala died at Geisinger Medical Center in Shenandoah, two days after being beaten and called a “dirty Mexican” and other racial slurs. The two defendants, both players on the Shenandoah Valley High School football team, were charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, simple assault and ethnic intimidation. While senior Derrick M. Donchak, the teams starting quarterback last year, was not charged with the most serious offense, criminal homicide, he was arraigned on charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, hindering apprehension or prosecution, ethnic intimidation, corruption of minors, purchase or consumption of alcohol and selling or furnishing alcohol to minors. Another teen is expected to be charged, authorities said.

The suspect pulled along a California road, where he stomped the child.

The police bullets that killed a 27-year-old northern California man were too late. When officers in Stanislaus County rolled up on the man along a dark, country road Saturday night, they saw him kicking, punching and stomping a toddler. They fired, killing the unidentified man, but not before the man had killed the child, estimated by the Stanislaus County coroner to be between 1 and 2 years old. “It’s been a long night of wondering, ‘Why?’ – not only for the officers and the passers-by who stopped and tried to help out, but for anyone. Why would somebody do this?” said sheriff’s deputy Royjindar Singh. Authorities say they do not know the relationship between the child and the man. The injuries were so severe, Singh said, that the child will have to be identified through a blood or DNA test. The suspect’s four-door pickup truck had a child’s car seat in the back; it caught the attention of an elderly couple late Saturday evening because it had stopped in a two-lane road, facing the wrong direction, Singh told The Associated Press. When they got closer, the couple saw the man pummeling the child behind the truck and throw him to the ground, the deputy said. “What we got from witnesses is he was punching, slapping, kicking, stomping, shaking,” Singh said. “They tried to intervene and get involved, but their efforts really didn’t have an effect. The suspect was engaged in what he was doing. He just pushed them off and went back to it.” Paramedics tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the toddler, who was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.