Three Illinois teenagers are accused of raping a 12-year-old girl at gunpoint and posting a video of it on Facebook.

Kenneth Brown, 15, Justin Applewhite, 16, and Scandale Fritz, 16 appeared in court on Friday. They are being charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault.

All three are accused of luring the girl into Fritz's home in Englewood where they sexually assaulted her.

The girl was raped by Fritz and told to also have sex with Brown and Applewhite.

When the girl refused to have sex with them, Brown and Applewhite raped her and ordered her again to perform sex acts on them.

She said she was scared to attempt escaping because she was afraid of getting shot.

A day later, she told an adult what had happened and was taken to the hospital. Police were also contacted.

Physicians and physician assistants in Alabama are now required to prove they are U.S. citizens, under the state's 2011 immigration law.

Medical professionals received letters this week instructing them to submit paperwork to the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners (ABME) in order to maintain their license to practice.

"A person applying for or renewing a professional license is required to sign a declaration of U.S. citizenship and demonstrate U.S. citizenship or demonstrate lawful presence in the U.S., which is then verified by the federal government," read the May 16 letter published by the Huffington Post.

It says the medical professional has only until May 31, 2013 to send the required documentation. "You will not be permitted to renew you license until this agency is in receipt of the signed Declaration and accompanying documentation," said the letter.

New Yorkers -- including mayoral candidate Christine Quinn -- planned a rally Monday to protest the shooting death of a gay man in the neighborhood that was the cradle of the modern US gay rights movement.

Few food items have enjoyed a more surprising recent resurgence than the savory strips of pig fat known as bacon. It is being wrapped around entrees, used to swizzle cocktails, and even serves as a flavor of ice cream.

But now a popular pork-focused restaurant in the Upper Haight must close its doors Friday following months of failed negotiations with neighbors over neighborhood concerns about porcine aroma and grease disposal.

Department of Public Health officials say the owners of Bacon Bacon, located at 205A Frederick Street, have had months since opening the space to address these and other concerns. But following their failure to do so, the restaurant must shut its doors.

Elvira Campos killed on Saturday night near Sacramento, California

Died after gunmen walked up to front door and opened fire

Father and mother were also injured in the attack


A 10-year-old girl was shot dead while watching TV after gunmen opened fire on her family's home.

Elvira Campos was killed when at least two suspects sprayed the property with bullets, in North Highlands, near Sacramento, California.

Her father and mother were also injured in the attack, on Saturday night.

At least two gunmen are believed to have carried out the shooting, which took place at around 10.30pm.

About a dozen shots are believed to have been fired at the home from two different weapons.

Four holes were clearly visible in the living room window of the property, where the girl is believed to have been sitting.

Bullet holes could also be seen in the property's front door and in the frame around the front window.

Sheriff's spokesman Jason Ramos said the youngster's parents are expected to recover from their wounds, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Detective Scott Swisher said the family were innocent victims and that they were not involved in any disputes that the police are aware of.

I appreciate pieces like Lauren Rankin's "Feminism Needs Men, Too" over at PolicyMic and interviews like this one Brittney Cooper (of Crunk Feminist Collective) did with The Feminist Wire because they force me to consider more deeply what it means when I identify as a male feminist. I come into this space with a set of privileges (cis, male, hetero) that are in constant need of interrogation, so it's important to take some time to reflect on that a bit.

I'm deliberate about saying I'm a feminist for a couple of reasons. I believe in equality and tearing down the systems of oppression that stand its way, so identifying as a feminist signals my dedication to radical change. But one can be invested in that work without applying the label. I choose it because I always want to be held accountable.

The line that struck me the most in Brittney's interview is when she said: "The thing that we aren't saying about male feminists is that they have to do the emotional work." Relatively speaking, the politics is easy. The emotional work? That shit is hard, but is some of the most important work we're charged with doing.

Because after the dust has settled, the reproductive rights have been won, the pay is equal, and there's equal representation in Congress, the mission is only half complete if sexism still dominates our social spaces. You can say the structural stuff is more important, but it's the everyday stuff that reinforces the structural stuff that adds up to a clusterfuck of mind-numbing oppression. And so many of us are guilty of allowing ourselves to perpetuate it without ever taking a moment to see the damage we're doing.

A Philadelphia teenager with cerebral palsy is recovering after a brutal attack in which she was bitten across her back and shoulders. However, from where the bites originated remains a mystery.

16-year-old Ariel Alexander's condition has confined her to a wheelchair for most of her life, leaving her unable to communicate to authorities about who committed the savage act, MyFoxPhilly.com reported.

Yet the human bite marks across her left shoulder and upper back are clearly visible.

Ariel's parents reportedly believe that the incident occurred at MLK High School, where Ariel is a student in a special needs classroom. Her parents say that a few days after the attack, which they claim took place on May 1, a male teacher took them to one side and informed them that a fellow student was responsible. The school rejects the notion that it occurred on school property, stating that all teachers interviewed have denied seeing anything.

Not only has social inequality risen in the industrialized nations over the past three decades, the economic crisis of 2008-09 sped up the deterioration as "pain of the crisis was not evenly shared," a new report says.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which unites the world's most developed countries, has published an update to its report 'Divided We Stand'. The report published in December 2011 showed that by 2008 the industrialized nations had the worst situation with inequality in three decades.

According to the new data, the gap between the rich and the poor in most of its 34 members has been getting wider since the crisis started at a higher pace than it did before. Inequality grew more over the three years between 2007 and 2010 than it did over the 12 years before that.

Among OECD countries, it appears that "the top 10 percent has done better than the poorest 10 percent in 21 countries," with the widest gaps seen in the United States, Turkey, Chile and Mexico. In the three years described above, their income status had been continuously plunging by 2 per cent every year.

A 21-year-old college student was shot and killed early Friday on Long Island after an armed man broke into the home she shared with her twin sister, held her hostage and then engaged in a gun battle with the police, the authorities said. The man who forced his way into the home was also killed

It was not immediately clear who fired the fatal shots, the police said.

The violence played out in the middle of the night on an ordinarily quiet residential street, only blocks from Hofstra University, where the victim went to school. Students who were preparing for their last day of exams awoke to the news that one of their own had been killed, and the normally festive atmosphere that comes with the end of the academic year turned terribly sad.

As many as 50 or 60 people were injured Saturday in southwest Virginia when a car plowed into the annual Appalachian Trail Days parade in the town of Damascus, sending hundreds of people scattering amid shouts and screams.

Nine of the injured were taken to hospitals after the incident at the annual trail festival, but none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening, authorities said.

"Reports to us indicate that no one was injured beyond stable" said Pokey Harris, director of emergency management in Washington County, Va. where Damascus is located, about 300 miles southwest of the District.