Gauteng province, South Africa - A truly shocking story is currently unfolding in the Vereeniging District Court. The owner of a "game-ranger training camp" with links to far-right groups stands trial for the torture and murder of a 15-year-old boy in his care in 2011. This is the third teen to have died at the camp in the last six years, although the previous two deaths were recorded as "natural causes". Echo Wild Game Rangers promised to turn effeminate boys into manly men.

The situation is heartbreaking.

A 6-day-old baby is dead and her own mother, who has eight other children, is accused of killing her.


The husband of 36-year-old Nina Koistinen has said she suffers from severe mental illness.

But according to those who know the family, there might have been another contributing factor - the family's religion.

Since Phoenix police arrested Nina Koistinen on Thursday, April 25 - several former members of the Phoenix Laestadian Lutheran Church in Cave Creek have come forward with serious concerns about one of its doctrines.

One former Laestadian, who wishes to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, said it boils down to brainwashing.

New polling numbers suggest that United States citizens are on average more afraid of their own government then the threat of another terrorist attack.

Even after a pair of bombings in Boston two weeks ago injured hundreds, more Americans say they are unwilling to sacrifice constitutional liberties for security than those who are.

A handful of polls conducted in the days after the Boston Marathon bombings show that US citizens are responding much differently than in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that killed roughly 3,000 people. Not only are Americans more opposed now to giving up personal freedoms for the sake of security than they were after 9/11, but other statistics show that distrust against the federal government continues to climb.

Just one day after the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing, pollsters with Fox News asked a sample of Americans, "Would you be willing to give up some of your personal freedom in order to reduce the threat of terrorism?" Forty-three percent of the respondents said they would, while 45 percent said no. Comparatively, 71 percent of Americans asked a similar question in October 2001 said they'd be willing to give up personal freedoms, while only 20 percent opposed at the time.

In the dozen years since 9/11, frequent polling conducted by Fox has suggests that the majority of Americans have all the while said they'd give up their freedoms for the sake of security. Only with the latest inquiry though are those answers reversed: the last time a majority of Americans opposed giving up privacy for security was May 2001.

An apartment building collapsed after an apparent gas explosion in the northern French city of Reims, killing at least three people and injuring fourteen.

The blast destroyed 10 apartments in the four-story building at around 11:15am local time. The area was evacuated over fears of a second explosion.

Initially two fatalities were reported, but later in the day crews searching for survivors turned up the body of a woman under the rubble, raising the death toll to three. Michel Bernard, the top government official in Reims, said it was unlikely that the toll would rise any higher.

One person was hospitalized with serious, but not life-threatening injuries, and another 13 people had minor injuries.

The blast at the four-story building was probably caused by a gas leak, Mayor Adeline Hazan told BFM TV, adding that the blast was "very strong" and had shattered windows in other buildings.

A woman desperate for another child forced her 14-year-old daughter to get pregnant using syringes of donor sperm, a British judge says.

In a ruling reported for the first time on Monday, High Court judge Peter Jackson said the mother had behaved in "a wicked and selfish way" that almost defied belief.

The judge said the woman, an American divorcee living in Britain with three adopted children, hatched the plan after she was prevented from adopting a fourth.

The scheme involved getting her oldest daughter to inseminate herself with syringes of sperm purchased over the internet from a Denmark-based company, Cryos International.

Jackson said the daughter, identified only as A, "became pregnant at the mother's request, using donor sperm bought by the mother, with the purpose of providing a fourth child for the mother to bring up as her own".

In his ruling, the judge quoted the teenager as saying she was shocked by the suggestion, but thought, "If I do this ... maybe she will love me more."

Suspect in attack, which took place as Enrico Letta's new government was being sworn in a mile away, named as Luigi Preiti

Up to 40 people were injured, 4 of them critical, when a massive blast damaged a building in the center of the Czech capital Prague, as firefighters told AP and Russia Today Reported.

St. Joseph County, Indiana - An Indiana woman bought a can of green beans on sale for 69 cents, and what she found inside will keep her and her family from ever eating canned green beans again.

"We eat a lot of green beans. We do. We did. Nobody wants anymore now," said Gloria Chubb.

Gloria, a retired nurse, is disgusted by what she served up at the dinner table for her and her son.

"It was meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans," she said.

It was what was in the can of Meijer green beans that made them both lose their appetite.

Protests between police and demonstrators continued into the night in front of the parliament building in Madrid.

Around 1,000 demonstrators tried to shut down the government in a protest over the country's austerity measures and tax hikes.

The protest turned violent earlier in the day after demonstrators tried to tear down the barrier that blocked the entrance to parliament.

The protest happened on the same day the country's unemployment figures were released... a record 27 percent with more than six million people out of work.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is expected to announce further reforms to help cut Spain's deficit later on Friday.

The major TV news networks in the US are losing viewers tired of opinionated coverage and carefully selected stories, according to a recent study by an American nonpartisan thinktank. RT's Gayane Chichakyan looks into the phenomenon.