Tens of thousands of Guinea citizens mourned the death on Friday of a man seen as both corrupt and as a lesser evil than war. Lansana Conte, who took leadership of the African nation in 1984, created stability that many preferred over the civil conflicts that were taking place in nearby countries. Conte died this week at age 74. His passing leaves Guinea in political turmoil.

Levert death could prompt a change in jail policy. The city of Cleveland, prompted by the death of R&B singer Sean Levert, has proposed changes in jail policy that could make it easier for inmates to get their psych medication. Levert, a member of the LeVert trio and son of O’Jays singer Eddie Levert, died in late March after getting sick at Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County Jail. His widow, Angela Lowe, is suing the city, arguing that her husband died because he was denied his Xanax anti-anxiety medication. He had his medication at the time he was booked into the jail for neglecting to pay child support. Under the new proposal by the jail administrator and jail doctor, inmates will be allowed to get their meds as soon as their prescriptions are verified, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

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.

Race divides neighborhoods 40 years after King’s death. Four decades after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death and in the year of a Black man’s election to the White House, American neighborhoods are still segregated. The National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity reports that past and “ongoing discriminatory practices in the nation’s housing and lending markets continue to produce levels of residential segregation that result in significant disparities between minority and non-minority households…” Blacks and Latinos have been driven by the subprime mortgage crisis into more difficult loans than Whites, the report adds. ”When the rules break down in something as fundamental as where you can live … our system doesn’t work,” says Henry Cisneros, a former secretary for housing and urban development under President Bill Clinton. “I know the president-elect will see that as well.”

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.

A New York bus driver is stabbed to death over a $2 transfer. A New York City bus driver was stabbed to death this week allegedly over a $2 transfer, The New York Daily News reports.  Click here to watch the video.

Man arrested in the brutal Arkansas TV anchor’s death. After getting a tip to his location, Arkansas police arrested Curtis Lavelle Vance, 28, at a home in Little Rock on Wednesday night in connection with the brutal death of TV Anchor Anne Pressly. Vance was charged with capital murder in the death of Pressly, 26, an anchorwoman who had a small part in the President George W. Bush biopic “W.” Pressly died   Oct. 25 – five days after being severely beaten in what police described as a random attack at her home. Police were tipped to Vance’s location, naming him as their suspect, said Lt. Terry Hastings, a police spokesman. Vance lived in Marianna, in eastern Arkansas but had numerous contacts in central Arkansas, where the murder took place, Police Chief Stuart Thomas said.

The first Black mayor of a mid-sized Illinois town dies. The Mayor of Dolton, Ill., William Shaw, 71, died Wednesday at his Dolton home after a four-year battle with cancer, The Chicago Tribute reported. Shaw, a former state lawmaker, became Dolton’s first African-American mayor when he was elected in 1997. He was elected state representative in the 34th District in 1982 and served two terms  before being elected state senator of the 15th District. He was a senator for 10 years until he retired in 2002. As a senator, Shaw co-sponsored legislation that made it mandatory that African-American history be taught in Illinois public schools.

Rapper is “super-devastated” by mom’s death. Could the frustration of grief over his mom’s death be behind Kanye West’s recent clashes with photographers? Maybe it’s a coincidence, but just days after People magazine published West’s first public comments on losing his parent, the rapper is explaining his second arrest in three months. Kanye was questioned by police in England, but not charged this past weekend after a cameraman claimed the rapper shoved his camera into his face, causing a cut. West took to his blog to write about the incident outside Newcastle’s Tup Tup Club: “I put my hand up to the camera in self-defense! …My security yelled, ‘Get the camera off him!’ I guess, in all the commotion, the camera scraped his nose.” West barely escaped felony charges in September when he and an assistant were caught on video destroying another photographer’s equipment at an airport. Instead, West was issued a misdemeanor. He further blogs, “When will there be a law passed that simply enforces that someone has to ask to take a photograph of you?” People quoted West as saying that his mother’s death, due to cosmetic surgery complications last year, left him “super-devastated. I didn’t do any interviews after my mom passed,” he tells the mag. “I wasn’t ready to speak about [it]. Now I’d rather talk it through than commit suicide. …I feel like I moved to California, then my mom moved to California, and she did stuff she wouldn’t have done if we’d stayed in Chicago. If I’d never made it in the music business, it never would’ve happened.”

Ex-millionaire label head’s financial woes continue. Former Roc-a-Fella Records boss Damon Dash doesn’t have “a pot to p–s in,” says a lawyer who recently sued him. “They’re broke,” Jason Gabbard says of Dash and his wife, following a suit over $148,505 in unpaid fees. The lawyer tells The New York Daily News that Dash owed a fashion firm the cash before the suit was settled. Earlier this year, the entertainment entrepreneur’s New York home was reported in foreclosure, and just this month his Chevy Tahoe was seized after he reportedly stopped paying the $714.99 monthly lease. If that’s not enough, Dash faces an outstanding debt of $2.1 million in New York state taxes and at least three other pending suits and unpaid tabs.

NFL tackle offers condolences to Jennifer Hudson. Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris says he’ll donate a jersey to singer Jennifer Hudson’s family in tribute to her murdered brother. The star’s sibling, Jason Hudson, her mother Darnell Donerson and her nephew Julian King were all recently shot to death in Chicago in unsolved, apparently pre-meditated, attacks. King’s stepfather, the estranged husband of Hudson’s sister, is the only suspect in the crimes, but he hasn’t been charged. “I would like to give them a personal jersey,” says Harris, who is a friend of Jennifer Hudson. “A lot of times you try to understand things, but you can’t fathom that, losing three loved ones within three days. It’s very difficult and my prayers are with the family. It’s hard, but you just have to try not to lose faith in God.” Get more celebrity condolences here.

“Uneven Fairways” to examine trailblazers on course. Tiger Woods isn’t the only Black athlete to cross boundaries on the golf course. The Golf Channel has announced a documentary scheduled for Black History Month 2009 that will spotlight similar trailblazers. “These are inspiring stories of golfers who overcame great odds just to create a tour where they could compete,” says Page Thompson, president of Golf Channel. “Uneven Fairways” will debut Feb. 11 on the Orlando-based network.

Pitcher could spend up to 16 years in prison. The minor league pitcher who allegedly gave a fan a concussion by hitting him with a ball could spend 16 years in prison. Julio Castillo, 21, was trying to throw the ball into the opposing team’s dugout to hit a player, but struck the fan in the head, prosecutors say. The actual July 24 game was interrupted by a 10-minute brawl that cleared the benches between Castillo’s Peoria Chiefs and home team Dayton. Castillo was indicted in Ohio this week on a count of felonious assault with a deadly weapon and a felonious assault causing serious physical harm. “There is no excuse for this type of behavior, whether it’s in a ball park or a back alley,” says prosecutor Mathias Heck Jr. “Fans should not be subjected to violence because a player is unable to control his temper.”

Only 2 percent of cancer docs are Black, 3 percent Hispanic.

  Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the American Society of Clinical Oncology have partnered to create the Komen/ASCO Diversity in Oncology Initiative, which hopes to reduce health care disparities by boosting the number of minority cancer docs, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Minorities disproportionately are affected by several forms of cancer, but only 2 percent of oncologists in the United States are Black; 3 percent are Hispanic, according to the Plain Dealer report.  “The gaps in disparity, especially in oncology, can only be closed with (the addition of more) individuals who are culturally competent, who in some way are able to relate and feel comfortable to these patients,” said Derek Raghavan, director of the Taussig Cancer Institute at the Cleveland Clinic and co-chair of ASCO’s Health Disparities Advisory Group. Socioeconomic factors, language and literacy barriers and a mistrust of the medical community also contribute to minorities’ access to quality health care, health experts say. “The ultimate endpoint is to improve survival rates,” Raghavan added. Using a multimillion-dollar grant from Komen over the next two years, the initiative will give monetary awards to support medical students with oncology rotations and a mentor; oncologists or oncology fellows who have completed training; and loan repayments; and travel to annual ASCO meetings.
Black women in Florida county die younger than others. Black women are dying at a younger age than White women from a number of conditions, including HIV/AIDS, heart disease and diabetes, The Florida Times-Union reports. The report by the county Center for Health Statistics is based on government figures form 2006. It looks at the years of potential life lost, which, according to center coordinator Rebecca Filipowicz, tabulates “years that were lost that shouldn’t have been.” The barometer for Black women is nearly 50 percent higher than for Whites, she said. “As with a lot of the health issues we study, there’re major health disparities, especially with race and geographic distribution.” Women living in primarily Black Jacksonville communities had the highest rates of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Filipowicz said that even though such conditions are preventable, many women cannot afford health care or they might not know enough about their health to recognize a problem. The report noted that about one in five Black women was uninsured, compared with one in 10 White women. A similar report released earlier this year focusing on men also found that Blacks were dying from preventable diseases, in large part because of limited access to medical care, according to the Times-Union.