The boys' choir from Zambia sang in churches, schools and shopping malls across the United States. In exchange for their hard work, the boys were promised an education, wages that could be sent home to family and a school that would be built in Africa.
People who heard the 12-member a cappella choir were touched. They reached into their wallets and purses and offered up donations. The boys, ranging in age from 12 to 17, sang a mixture of gospels in English and their native tongue. They brought in more than $1 million, yet saw little of it. They received room and board and the occasional token payment, but no wages, no education, no school back home.
The boys are among the faces of modern-day slavery - in their case, trafficked into the United States under the guise of a faith-based organization that preyed on them.
"They were brought here for a specific purpose and that was to get as much out of them - with no regard for them or their futures," says Sal Orrantia, a U.S. immigration agent who worked the case.
Society's Child
© Cable News Network
Durgawati, her husband and children stand before piles of bricks, with their brick homes in the background.
Durgawati, her husband and children stand before piles of bricks, with their brick homes in the background.
From sunup to sundown they spend their time pouring wet mud into molds, lugging them to the kiln, firing them and then pulling them out. For their backbreaking work, they do not receive wages.
They are working to pay off a debt.
In India they are known as bonded laborers, bound to those who gave them or their forefathers an advance or a loan. Human rights advocates call them modern day slaves.
"I cannot leave here unless I pay my debt," said Durgawati, a mother of three.
A contractor had approached Durgawati and her husband, offering them work in a far-off village. He had said there were plenty of opportunities and offered to pay an advance to prove it. Desperate to make a living and with no work in sight where they lived, they leapt at the chance and took the 1000-rupee ($22) advance, she said.
Hundreds of anti-establishment protestors stormed a Wirral court today and "arrested" a judge.
In chaotic scenes, police rescued Judge Michael Peake from their clutches and escorted him safely from the building.
Protestors from the public gallery charged at Mr Peake to make a civil arrest chanting "arrest that judge".
Police scrambled over court benches to control the near-riot and one protestor shouted "seal the court."
Another sat in the judge's chair at the head of the court and declared Mr Hayes as "released".
Around 600 chanting demonstrators massed around the County Court in Birkenhead.
Deafening cheers and chants could be heard from the crowd outside and protestors used mobile phones to film arrests being made.
Roads were blockaded and dozens of police officers deployed to keep order.
© Unknown
Two Arab newspapers and al Jazeera television said Monday Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was looking for an agreement allowing him to step down, but there was no official confirmation of the reports.
Al Jazeera said Gaddafi had proposed to Libyan rebels to hold a meeting of parliament to pave the way for him to step down with certain guarantees.
It said Gaddafi made the proposal to the interim council, which speaks for mostly eastern areas controlled by his opponents. It quoted sources in the council as saying Gaddafi wanted guarantees of personal safety for him and his family and a pledge that they not be put on trial.
© Unknown
It's time for us all to confront this taboo. Capitalism rests on several key ideas regarding human motivation and development that fly in the face of much of Western psychology. Here I will focus on two of these: that people are primarily self-interested and that the acquisition of material wealth is the key to happiness. If these "insights" prove false or seriously incomplete, then capitalism unravels at the seams.
A witness reported seeing a car stopped in front of the body.
Police now know how a man's body got onto the 10 freeway early Monday morning.
Authorities said the man wandered onto the 10 Freeway near Crenshaw Boulevard and was reportedly struck repeatedly by cars before a motorist pulled over and called the police and a sigalert was issued.
California Highway Patrol Officer Brent Leatherman said troopers received a call about the body of man in his mid-30s lying in the slow lane on the westbound 10 freeway at around 3:41 a.m.
A witness reported seeing a car stopped in front of the body.
That vehicle left the scene, according to the witness, who remained behind to try to divert traffic.
Even if it was an accident, Leatherman said drivers should always stop if they have struck a pedestrian.
Police now know how a man's body got onto the 10 freeway early Monday morning.
© KTLA-TV
Body found on 10 Freeway in Jefferson Park
Body found on 10 Freeway in Jefferson Park
California Highway Patrol Officer Brent Leatherman said troopers received a call about the body of man in his mid-30s lying in the slow lane on the westbound 10 freeway at around 3:41 a.m.
A witness reported seeing a car stopped in front of the body.
That vehicle left the scene, according to the witness, who remained behind to try to divert traffic.
Even if it was an accident, Leatherman said drivers should always stop if they have struck a pedestrian.
© Roland Hoskins
Disgusted: Joanne Freeman, 39, said the defence of Mr Khan, who claimed he was so drunk that he went into the wrong hotel room and started having sex with her, was absurd
Disgusted: Joanne Freeman, 39, said the defence of Mr Khan, who claimed he was so drunk that he went into the wrong hotel room and started having sex with her, was absurd
A woman who woke to find a man having sex with her has told of her disbelief at his acquittal on rape charges after he claimed he had stumbled into the wrong bed.
Haydor Khan, 22, said he was so drunk that it was not until he was having sex with Joanne Freeman that he realised she was not his girlfriend and that he was in the wrong hotel room.
But Miss Freeman, 39, said she struggled to understand how Mr Khan could have mistaken her - a petite, size six blonde - for his tall, size 12 brunette girlfriend Nicola Wood, 19.
© unknown
The Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama
It is unclear how the 76-year-old Dalai Lama, who lives in India and is revered by many Tibetans, plans to pick his successor. He has said that the succession process could break with tradition -- either by being hand-picked by him or through democratic elections.
But Padma Choling, the Chinese-appointed governor of Tibet, said that the Dalai Lama had no right to abolish the institution of reincarnation, underscoring China's hardline stance on one of the most sensitive issues for the restless and remote region.
"I don't think this is appropriate. It's impossible, that's what I think," he said on the sidelines of the annual meeting of China's parliament, when asked about the Dalai Lama's suggestion that his successor may not be his reincarnation.
"We must respect the historical institutions and religious rituals of Tibetan Buddhism," said Padma Choling, a Tibetan and a former soldier in the People's Liberation Army. "I am afraid it is not up to anyone whether to abolish the reincarnation institution or not."
© n/a
According to a recent report in Tablet Magazine, Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, hired actors to call in as guests.
A website for the Premiere On Call service was taken offline before the report was published, but a cached version of the website is still available.
However, when Raw Story contacted Premiere's entertainment division, one individual who spoke off the record claimed that the service was still being offered.
"Premiere On Call is our new custom caller service," the website said. "We supply voice talent to take/make your on-air calls, improvise your scenes or deliver your scripts. Using our simple online booking tool, specify the kind of voice you need, and we'll get your the right person fast. Unless you request it, you won't hear that same voice again for at least two months, ensuring the authenticity of your programming for avid listeners."
© John Luke, The Times
Dustin Keaton, from the Lake County Animal Adoption and Control Center, rescues a dog Friday from a home in the 7800 block of 245th Avenue in Schneider. The Lake County Sheriff's Department served a warrant at the home where authorities found more than 18 dogs living and about 15 canine carcasses in a freezer.
Dustin Keaton, from the Lake County Animal Adoption and Control Center, rescues a dog Friday from a home in the 7800 block of 245th Avenue in Schneider. The Lake County Sheriff's Department served a warrant at the home where authorities found more than 18 dogs living and about 15 canine carcasses in a freezer.
Lake County Sheriff's Department investigators executed a search warrant on allegations of animal abuse and neglect on Friday at a residence on the 7800 block of 245th Street.
It was impossible for police to operate in the home without protective suits and face masks. The stench wafted uphill in the wind as they opened the front door. Sheriff's deputies said they could smell the odor more than 500 feet from the home.
