Smoking causes more cancers than once thought  It is known that tobacco-smoking leads to serious health complications. Smoking is a major risk factor for cancer. But a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) links smoking to more cancers than most people realize. Get the details at BET.com/Body & Soul.

Infamous Klansman will rally troops in civil rights capital

Renowned ex-Klansman David Duke is uniting his troops in Memphis, the home of the National Civil Rights Museum. Duke, the Louisiana White supremacist politician who came a stone’s throw from landing in the U.S. Senate, has announced his Euro-International Conference to be held in the historic city on Nov. 8. But it is unclear exactly where the event will be held, according to Kevin Kane, an official with the convention and visitors bureau. At the convention, Duke will address the presidential election. “We will assemble to say clearly that neither Black radical, Barrack Obama, nor Mr. Amnesty, John McCain, truly represent the will of the American people,” says Duke, who left the Democratic Party several years ago to join the Republican ranks. Before his run for the Senate in 1990, Duke left the KKK – officially – and he formed the National Association for the Advancement of White People, NAAWP. He says he didn’t pick Memphis because it is the infamous site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or the home of the National Civil Rights Museum, but because it is the most centrally located cities in the United States.

Police seek noose planter at Texas University. Police want to know who put a noose on the chair of the student body president at Abilene Christian University last week. When Daniel Paul Watkins, and African-American senior political science major, returned to his office on Wednesday, somebody had put the racially insensitive symbol there. University President Royce Money said the action is nothing short of a hate crime and campus cops are working to solve the case. Only about 13 percent of the student body at Abilene Christian, a campus of 4,700 students, is Black.

Black kids get more in-school spankings than Whites.

If the adage that sparing the rod spoils the child, Black schoolchildren are a lot less spoiled than their White counterparts. A new study shows that of the more than 200,000 children who got spanked at school last year, Black and Native American and kids with disabilities got more than their fair share. You can find more about the findings at BET.com/News. 

Study says Blacks are treated fairly in sentencing. Researchers at the University of Nevada-Reno say that, contrary to the common perception, African American defendants do not get a raw deal from the justice system when it comes to sentencing. When such factors as socio-economic status, education, criminal history and drug use, there is no indication that the courts favor White defendants over Blacks, the researchers said. “A similarly situated African American or Caucasian or Hispanic appeared to be treated fairly in the same way across the board,” said Judge Douglas Herndon. The results of the study, revealed Monday at a legislative hearing, reviewed the circumstances of Black and White inmates currently serving time. It did not explore issues other than their race and incarceration. Gary Peck, of the American Civil Liberties Union, told Channel 8 Eyewitness News that the researchers are wrong if they believe that Blacks and Whites are treated fairly by the courts. “It would be wrong to conclude on that basis that the system is devoid of race-based iniquities or institutional racism,” said Peck. The fact that people of color are far more likely to be arrested amplifies the magnitude of the race problem.

Trial for Civil Rights Era suspect is delayed. James Bonard Fowler, the White Alabama trooper who will stand trial for killing a Black man at a civil rights rally a half century ago must wait another month or so before facing his accusers. The trial, originally scheduled for Sept. 11, will be held on Oct 20. Fowler allegedly shot Jimmie Lee Jackson in cold blood in Marion, Ala., in 1965 following civil rights demonstration. Fowler, who was indicted last year, says the shooting was self-defense.

Abercrombie is sued over a Muslim head scarf. Arguing that Abercrombie & Fitch violated the civil rights of a Muslim job applicant by denying her application because of her head scarf, a Muslim civil rights group has sued the popular clothing outlet. According to the lawsuit, filed at the Oklahoma City branch of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the district manager for the clothing store at Woodland Hills Mall told a young woman in late June that her hijab, a head scarf worn observant Muslim women, did not fit the Abercrombie image. “Employers have a clear legal duty to accommodate the religious practices of their workers,” said Razi Hashmi, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Oklahoma, which helped the girl file the complaint. “To deny someone employment because of apparent religious bias goes against long-standing American traditions of tolerance and inclusion.” The council declined to release the name of the plaintiff; she is younger than 18. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 stipulates that employers must attempt to accommodate the religious practices of an employee unless doing so would create an undue hardship for the employer.