Data on shooting deaths
Data on shooting deaths
WASHINGTON — The number of young black men and teenagers who either killed or were killed in shootings has risen at an alarming rate since 2000, a new study shows.
The study, to be released today by criminologists at Northeastern University in Boston, comes as FBI data are showing that homicides have leveled off nationwide.
Not so for black teens, the youngest of whom saw dramatic increases in shooting deaths, the Northeastern report concluded.
Last year, for example, 426 black males between the ages of 14 and 17 were killed in gun crimes, the study shows. That marked a 40 percent increase from 2000.
Decline in police deaths
WASHINGTON — Fewer police officers died in the line of duty in 2008 compared to last year, reflecting better training and tactics, two law enforcement support groups reported Sunday.
The findings reversed the trend for 2007 when there was a spike in police deaths, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and another group, Concerns of Police Survivors.
The groups reported fatalities through Sunday.
Officer deaths this year totaled 140, compared with 181 in 2007.
Gunfire deaths dropped to 41 officers this year, compared with 68 in 2007. The 2008 number represented the lowest total since 1956 — when there were 35 — and was far below the peak of 156 officers killed by gunfire in 1973.
U.S. soldier dies in blast
BAGHDAD — A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier in Baghdad’s Shiite slum of Sadr City on Sunday while an Iraqi died when a bicycle-riding suicide bomber blew himself up amid a mass rally against Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza.
The two attacks were demonstrations of the violence that still flares up in Iraq as the government prepares to take responsibility for security from the U.S. military in a few days.
A spokesman for the U.S. military, Army Capt. Charles Calio, said the soldier was killed by a roadside bomb that targeted an American convoy. He said there were no other casualties and the name of the soldier was being withheld pending notification of family.
In the northern Mosul, 16 people in the crowd of about 1,300 protesters were wounded in the attack in the city center,
Stalin glorified in project
MOSCOW — Television viewers have voted Soviet dictator Josef Stalin — who sent millions to their deaths in the Great Purge of the 1930s — Russia’s third-greatest historical figure.
Rights activists have blasted Stalin’s inclusion in the 90-day, nationwide project by the state-run Rossiya channel. They say authorities are trying to gloss over Stalin’s atrocities and glorify his tyranny.
The project, called “The Name of Russia,” culminated with the announcement Sunday night that Russian medieval leader Alexander Nevsky had been voted the greatest Russian, with more than 524,000 Internet and SMS votes.
In second place was Pyotr Stolypin, a prime minister early in the 20th century under Czar Nicholas II.
N.Y.’s ‘Good Riddance Day’
NEW YORK — Should auld acquaintance be forgot? Or maybe shredded?
In an event that organizers hope will become a New Year’s tradition, New Yorkers and tourists were invited to bring bad memories from 2008 to Times Square on Sunday and feed them to an industrial-strength shredder.
“This is the perfect way to move on from a bad year, from a bad experience,” said Kathryn Bonn of New York City, who shredded a printout of her boyfriend’s e-mail breaking up with her.
The event, the second annual “Good Riddance Day,” was sponsored by the Times Square Alliance, organizers of the New Year’s Eve ball-dropping celebration.
Grinch who stole from attic
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — A family didn’t realize it had an unexpected Christmas guest until a man who had been in their attic for days emerged wearing their clothes, police said.
Stanley Carter surrendered Friday after police took a dog to search the home in Plains Township, a suburb of Wilkes-Barre about 100 miles north of Philadelphia. He was charged with several counts of burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and criminal trespass.
“When he came down from the attic, he was wearing my daughter’s pants and my sweat shirt and sneakers,” homeowner Stacy Ferrance said. “From what I gather, he was helping himself to my home, eating my food and stealing my clothes.”
Associated Press