An alleged carjacker is behind bars in Texas after an encounter with a woman police called a "Mama Bear."

Police say Artrai Alexander, 40, robbed a store then carjacked a white Dodge Challenger Wednesday, before leading cops on a high-speed, eight-mile pursuit. The chase ended in a major accident. The Challenger smashed into a minivan being driven by Jessica Liesmann.

Instead of waiting for police to arrive, Liesmann took matters into her own hands. Liesmann and her boyfriend Charles Cook stormed out of the minivan and confronted Alexander, holding onto the straps of his overalls and wrestling him to the ground before officers arrived.

"I think he ran up against a Mama Bear," one police officer said.

Dear Fellow Muslim-Americans,

I know many of you are afraid.

I am, too. It's hard not to be, when it could've been us.

This letter is a token of faith to all of you - if you have been discriminated against for your beliefs before or after Feb. 10, and if you have been, or are, scared to leave your home today.

This is for anyone who feels like they've been bullied into silence.

I'm sure you're probably asking yourselves: do your lives hold any value? Are we worth any headlines?

They do, and we are.

The Houston Fire Department are investigating an arson case after an Islamic Center was set on fire early Friday morning.

At 5:39 A.M. a fire was reported at the Quba Islamic Institute in southeast Houston. According to local station KHOU 11, heavy smoke began pouring from the building as flames shot over the roof.

By 6:30 A.M. the fire was under control.

According to those in the community who utilized the building, the facility was once used as a church and school but was just purchased to be used as a family center. The building was destroyed but thankfully no one was injured.

Officials are now searching for a cause of the fire and arson investigators were at the scene of the fire.

Hate crimes against Muslims in the United States jumped after the September 11, 2001 attacks and remain high more than 13 years later. The recent murder of three Muslims in North Carolina is being investigated for a possible religious motivation.

The murder of three Muslim university students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Tuesday was unlikely a religiously-motivated hate crime, local police have said, though they have vowed to investigate all possible angles involved. The suspect in the killing, Craig Stephen Hicks, was a neighbor of the trio, and their conflict is said to have stemmed from issues over parking outside their apartment complex. The victims' family, however, disagreed with police, calling it a clear "hate crime" and an "execution."

If the triple homicide is proved to be a hate crime -- defined by the FBI as a "traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias" -- it would add to a high number of anti-Muslim hate crimes per year in the US.

The 13th Russia's humanitarian aid convoy for eastern Ukraine's Donbas arrived at the state border, the deputy chief of Russian Emergencies Ministry crisis management center, Oleg Voronov, said Sunday.

The convoy comprises over 170 vehicles, which will deliver over 1,800 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the war-torn regions, according to the ministry. Food, necessary items, building materials and other necessities will be brought to Donetsk and Luhansk.

"The humanitarian convoy will divide in two. Over 100 vehicles will be a part of the one delivering more than 1,100 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Donetsk, 70 vehicles will bring to Luhansk over 700 tonnes of humanitarian cargo," Oleg Voronov said.

The authorities in China's northeastern Jilin Province plan to create an international visa and duty-free tourist zone in the border region with Russia and North Korea.

The territory will lie along the Tumen River and will include the Chinese city of Hunchun and a ten square kilometer area in Russia and North Korea, the Xinhua news agency reports Friday. The infrastructure will be constructed jointly by the three countries participating in the project, the news agency reports.

Police in Georgia who cuffed a man to his hospital bed for two days after he was fatally shot by an officer have been accused by his family of barring them from visiting him to stop full details of the shooting from being disclosed.

Kevin Davis was detained at Grady hospital in Atlanta after being shot three times by a DeKalb County police officer, who was responding to a 911 call made by Davis and his girlfriend when she was stabbed by another man at their apartment in the suburb of Decatur.

His sister, Delisa, said she spent his final hours begging police to allow her to see him, but that they refused until he died. "They denied us access to him because they didn't want him telling us what really happened that night," she told the Guardian. In his last known remarks, Davis told a medic that an officer simply arrived at his home "and began shooting".

Jeffrey Mann, the DeKalb County sheriff, said in a statement on Thursday that his department showed "appropriate compassion" to detainees' families. "It is mandatory, however, that security protocol is applied consistently in order to protect the safety of both the inmate and the general public," said Mann, who denied that his officers on duty had blocked relatives from visiting.


Davis had been arrested and charged with aggravated assault against the police officer, Joseph Pitts, because he allegedly ignored an order to drop a revolver he was holding. Davis's girlfriend, April Edwards, said he grabbed the unloaded gun and approached their front door after their dog was shot and they feared that her attacker may have returned with a gun.

Pitts shot Davis in disputed circumstances. Police have said that Davis approached Pitts, who was in the corridor outside the apartment, shouting: "You shot my dog." Pitts had shot the three-legged pitbull dead, later alleging it "charged" at him after he opened the door to Davis's apartment. Police also said Pitts ordered Davis twice to "put down the gun".

But according to hospital files obtained by the Guardian, after arriving by ambulance Davis told an emergency room medic in his last known remarks "that police came to his house after there was an altercation with his girlfriend and began shooting".

Dubuque — A widow's bank account was seized by the IRS and she now faces criminal charges for depositing her legal inheritance money in lumps instead of all together.

Janet Malone, 68, had $18,775 seized from her — money that was legally earned and was legally bestowed to her by her late husband, Ronald Malone. The problem, according to the government, was the fact that she deposited it in several lumps instead of all at once.

According to the Associated Press, Mrs. Malone deposited the cash in increments between $5,800 and $9,000. The widow's private financial affairs evidently set off red flags under the watchful gaze of the federal government.

The IRS sought out and obtained a warrant in 2013 to seize Mrs. Malone's bank account based on suspicion that the transactions were sized in strategic amounts meant to avoid federal reporting requirements, which take place on transactions valued at $10,000 or more. The crime is referred to as "structuring" one's deposits.

A Georgia woman claimed in a lawsuit that police officers in Albany beat her so badly that she had a miscarriage.

In a complaint filed in federal court, Kenya Harris explained that she went to the Albany Police Department in May 2011 to pick up her minor son after he was arrested, according to Courthouse News.

Harris said she waited five hours for her son before informing Officers Ryan Jenkins that she needed to return home to take care of her other children.

"Defendant Officer Jenkins stated that he did not appreciate the tone in which she was communicating with him, and further stated that if she continued he would take her head and 'put it to the floor,'" the lawsuit stated.

The mother once again insisted that she needed to leave, and that's when Jenkins decided to use force.

"Defendant Officer Jenkins, without provocation, grabbed plaintiff, who weighs less than one hundred twenty (120) pounds, by her neck and slammed her to the ground," the lawsuit said. "Plaintiff momentarily blacked out and came to with defendant Officer Jenkins sitting on her back, and with his knee on her arm. Plaintiff was pregnant at the time."

A Pennsylvania sheriff's deputy could be charged with manslaughter if investigators determine he was high on cocaine when he shot and killed a rape suspect last month.

Richard Dwyer was fired by the Allegheny County sheriff after he tested positive for cocaine shortly after he and a U.S. Marshal fatally shot Leslie Sapp as they attempted to arrest him Jan. 6 at his Knoxville home, reported the Tribune-Review.

The 44-year-old Dwyer fired at least one of the seven shots that struck Sapp, who was accused of sexually assaulting a young girl.

Prosecutors said Sapp took a shooting stance with what was later found to be a pellet gun as deputies and members of a U.S. Marshals task force attempted to take him into custody.

Dwyer could be charged if investigators are able to determine his cognitive abilities were impaired at the time of the shooting.

"If an officer is under the influence of drugs and it affects his cognitive skills, and somehow this person is dead because he didn't act properly because of the drugs, that could be involuntary manslaughter," said District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.

Drug tests are part of the standard investigative procedure during officer-involved shootings.