At least 14 people were injured during a mass stabbing at a local community college in the northwest Houston area Tuesday morning, according to the local rescue officials.

Four people were critically injured during the incident at the Cy-Fair campus of Lone Star College in Harris County, the Cy-Fair volunteer fire department said.

One suspect was detained, local police said.

“LOCKDOWN at LSC-CyFair. Seek shelter now. If away, stay away,” the school posted on Twitter at noon local time.

Three people were shot at a separate campus of Lone Star College in January.

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Autism symptoms correspond to the level of toxic metal in the blood, with exposure to lead particularly harmful, according to a US study.

Autism sufferers carried 74% more lead in their systems than control subjects, and 115% more tin. Sufferers with more severe symptoms carried higher concentrations of metal, with researchers at Arizona State University finding that toxic metal was the “strongest factor” in determining severity.

“We knew that exposure to lead makes people lose IQ points, and clearly it can induce autism”, lead researcher Professor James Adams told Metro. “The study also showed that people with the highest levels are least able to excrete them”.

Autism was previously thought be largely a hereditary condition but environmental and chemical reasons are now being accepted. “Studies such as this improve our understanding”, said Caroline Hattersley, head of information and advice at the UK-based National Autism Society, calling for “more research…across a greater geographical area.”

It is the latest lead concern, after Metro reported research in January that revealed exposure could induce aggression, violence and brain damage. “Anything to do with the nervous system will be badly affected, we’re only starting to see the full damage”, Professor Howard Mielke, who studied the toxin’s effects in 14 countries, told Metro. “There are huge repercussions for learning ability from just a small change in exposure.”

Lead remains widespread across the world, most commonly in soil and paint. But neither government nor the petrol companies that produced leaded gasoline have taken action to clear it, with the Ethyl Corporation suing environmental groups that attempted to hold it responsible.

In civil courts, hundreds of millions of dollars have been recovered by the victims of lead poisoning, and is a rapidly growing area for compensation claims. The largest award to date is the $320 million paid out to victims of exposure at a St. Louis smelting plant in 2011.

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On one January day in Guatemala six women and two girls were murdered.

“I haven’t been able to find a reason for the murder,” says mother Rosa Franco, whose 15-year-old daughter Maria Isabel was killed. “But such is life as a woman in this country full of corrupt authorities. I suspect several people, including a 45-year-old drug dealer who’d been harassing my daughter since he asked to go out with her but she refused.”

Welcome to our 21st century world, where one third of women will become victims of violence at least once in their lifetime. In Peru, their fate is even worse: “We have 10 femicides a month,” says María Ysabel Cedano García of the local women’s rights group Demus.

Perhaps even more perplexing is that violence against women remains common in developed countries. In Sweden, 46 percent of women report having been victims of violence. Women and girls make up 80% of people trafficked globally each year.

“Violence against women is a hidden epidemic, and hidden is a very important word,” notes Ann Veneman, the former Executive Director of UNICEF. “We all know that women are getting raped as a weapon of war in places like the DRC, but in the developed world the problem is hidden.”

Most violence against women occurs in their homes, committed by their boyfriends or husbands. “Partner violence often has a psychological component, which makes it harder to measure,” notes Markku Heiskanen, an expert in domestic violence at the European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control. “And women want to protect their partners. When they talk about previous partners, they mention violence much more.”

Young women, especially, bear the brunt of men’s aggression. Nearly half of all sexual assaults worldwide are committed against girls under 16.

“In many cases it’s girls from difficult homes who are trapped by men who say they love them but are really johns [pimps],” says Veneman. “What goes on in these cases is quite extraordinary, and it’s happening in North America and Europe.”

But there’s good news. Safe houses for women are being built, even in countries where violence against women has long been tolerated. Victims are being trained in occupations so they can earn their own money. In India, the Delhi gang rape of a young woman led to unprecedented protests. And in China, the death sentence of Li Yan, a woman convicted of killing her husband after being abused by him for years, caused a rare public outcry.

On Valentine’s Day this year, the global organization V-Day arranged One Billion Rising, a record-breaking event for protesting violence against women. And this month global leaders convene at the UN headquarters in New York to address it.

A generation ago, violence against children was considered acceptable; today it’s frowned upon, and in many countries it’s banned.

“That shows that society can change the situation if it acts,” explains Heiskanen. “Every man carries violence inside him. Every human feels aggression, but perhaps women have been educated to use it less. We can educate men, too. They are rational beings. If they’re told what’s allowed and not, they’ll behave accordingly. We need courses in how to be a man.”

Victims of rape, FARC find hope in girls’ home

When Monica was five years old, her stepfather raped her. But when she told her mother, her mother informed her stepfather.

“Then he threatened to kill me and do the same to my sisters,” recalls Monica, now 16 years old.

After six more years of abuse, Monica ran away and joined FARC, Colombia’s rebel group.

“I wanted to belong to a group because at home I had nobody,” she explains. But after hearing that several boys had been killed, she escaped.

Monica is now being cared for by Taller de Vida, an organization in Bogota that supports former child soldiers. “

The most common reason the girls join this group is that they’ve been sexually abused by their relatives,” says Stella Duque, Taller de Vida’s director. “But having belonged to a revolutionary armed group creates big problems and emptiness in them.”

At Taller de Vida, Monica and the other girls get psychological counseling, attend school and perform theater and music. “I used to want to find my mother and kill her,” she says. “But now I want to find her and tell her that after all she did to me I’m happy.”

Q&A: “Vagina warriors celebrate success” — Susan Swan, Executive Director, V-Day

Metro: V-Day was founded after the Vagina Monologues became a global phenomenon. How can it be that, despite years of campaigning and events like the Monologues, violence against women remains so common?

Swan: V-Day just turned 15 years, and we asked ourselves, ‘How can we celebrate when one third of women are still victims of violence?’. But we’ve seen incredible progress. New laws have been passed. Women are doing amazing things, like running shelters for abuse victims. Tens of thousands of activists in 142 countries, including Libya, Iran and Somalia, have joined our campaign. People are realizing that if you help women you help your community.

Where have you seen progress?

Women are organizing. We’re getting emails from women all over the world telling us they’ll take action. In India, men and families are coming together in support of their wives and daughters. And in Mogadishu women recently organized a flash mob! Women are looking at the patriarchy in a different way. And men have been draw into this movement too, including Robert Redford and the Dalai Lama. We need more such men, and we need to invite men into the conversation. All of this creates a ripple effect. You need this movement in combination with legislation. Male and female members of the European Parliament have even created a ‘Vagina Lobby’. And remember that politics responds to people. It’s a stigma to our modern society that violence against women still exists.

Can you give me a success story?

We’ve helped with a healing program in the DRC called City of Joy. The women who attend are asked to bring what they’ve learned back to their communities, and boy, have they done it! We’ve seen a massive shift in attitudes. We call these women ‘the vagina warriors’. It’s truly inspiring.

Women in Iraq reduced to ‘breeders’ after war

Twenty years ago, Iraqi women usually dressed according to their choice, drove their cars freely, and had independent incomes. Indeed, when it came to women’s rights, Iraq was considered the most progressive country in the Middle East. Not anymore.

“Since the war started 10 years ago, Iraq has moved towards Islamist fundamentalism, and women are paying the price for it,” says Yanar Mohammed, President of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI).

“Even in families that were liberal before the war, women are now simply seen as breeders who have no opinion.” The situation has deteriorated even though the Americans immediately after the war introduced a 25% women quota for the new parliament.

OWFI, based in Baghdad, provides shelter for battered women, even though the government has banned it from doing so. “Even if a woman’s life is in danger, we’re not allowed to shelter her,” says Mohammed. “The general attitude is that if a woman goes against the wishes of her community, she deserves to be killed.”

So Mohammad goes on sheltering women, even though it means she could be sent to jail. “The so-called war of liberation has turned the worst machos into leaders,” she says. “We have to fight back. They don’t have the right to turn millions of women into victims.”

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Police were called to 2132 Mohegan Avenue Thursday evening at 6:07 p.m., where they found 33-year-old Daryl Fontnel with a gunshot wound to the left side of his head. Fontnel was in critical but stable condition when he was transported to St. Barnabas, but eventually succumbed to his injuries on Sunday afternoon at 3:43 p.m.

Three arrests were made in connection to the shooting: Hector Santos, 32, a resident of the building Fontnel was found in front of; Ruben Velez, 28, of 2035 Marmion Avenue in the Bronx; Hector Lebron, 41, of 845 Columbus Avenue in Manhattan.

The charges against the three arrestees are being updated since Fontnel’s passing.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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“Euphoria has given way to despair and deep concern,” Executive Director Kenneth Roth told reporters at the report launch in London. The 664-page report gave its primary focus to abuse of minority rights in the post-revolution states.

Egypt, described as the most important country in the region, was severely criticized for a constitution “filled with loopholes…and a contradiction between majoritarian rules and basic rights that needs to be resolved.”

The report notes an increase in prosecutions for dissent since the revolution, closure of independent media and arrest of NGO workers.

On Libya, Roth said “the major problem is the government does not control a lot of the country.” Over 3,000 people are being illegally held by militia formed to fight former dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The government is also criticized for enacting new laws cracking down on freedom of expression and religion.

Tunisia has fared better, and was praised for an “inclusive” approach to its new constitution. This is supported by a recent report from UK-based think tank Freedom House that found “Tunisia’s police force that is significantly more accountable” since the ousting of former Dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

Roth went on to claim that troubles in Algeria and Mali were a direct consequence of the Arab revolution, but warned against interpreting the volatility as proving “democracy is too dangerous” in the Arab world.

Global notes: What’s wrong with the world

Aung San Suu Kyi criticized

Nobel Peace prize winner and pro-democracy activist has “disappointed” by failing to address violent persecution of Muslims in her native Burma.

Wanted: Alternatives to UN Security Council

With the permanent members consistently defending their allies, notably Russia supporting Syria, HRW called for countries to form and join new international bodies to exert influence.

Barack Obama protects torturers

US President criticized for failing to investigate Bush-era torture practices, and permanently abandoning plans to close Guantanamo.

Green lobby ‘forget about people’

Essay attacks convention in crisis response to “focus on nature neglecting the human rights impact”.

Russia back to the Stone Age

“This year has seen the biggest backsliding since the Soviet Union, with crackdowns on NGOs and protests designed to close the space for dissent,”  said Roth.

Fascism in Europe: Q+A with Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth

Metro: How concerned are you at the growth of extreme right-wing groups in Europe?

Roth: There is clearly a significant increase in xenophobic and racist violence in Greece, and it’s not surprising you get that right-wing extremism in this situation of austerity and misery. The Greek government is responding to some extent and has created a special hate crimes unit within the police force. But I think its important that the EU as a whole address the issue, as clearly this could spread and it’s important to contain it.

So austerity programs are fueling racist violence?

The Economic crisis is contributing but that doesn’t excuse it and government  have a duty when right wing violence arises to contain it vigorously. Some steps have been taken but its not solved. Immigrants have become very vulnerable and there is an urgent need to address that.

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The December 16 attack on the 23-year-old student and a male companion provoked furious protests close to the seat of government in New Delhi and has fuelled a nationwide debate about the prevalence of sexual crime in India, where a rape is reported on average every 20 minutes.

The woman died of her injuries in hospital in Singapore, where she had been taken for treatment, on Saturday.

The five are accused of assaulting the woman on a bus in New Delhi, leaving her with such severe injuries that she died two weeks later. They were not present in court.

A sixth accused is under 18 and is due to be tried separately in a juvenile court.

A public prosecutor read out charges including murder, gang rape and criminal conspiracy. The court will examine the charges on Saturday, duty magistrate Surya Malik Grover said.

Murder carries the death penalty in India.

The father of the woman said earlier he backed the chorus of calls for those responsible to be executed.

“The whole country is demanding that these monsters be hanged. I am with them,” the father told reporters in his home village of Mandwara Kalan in Uttar Pradesh state. The woman was born in the village but the family later moved to New Delhi.

She has not been identified and nor have members of her family, in accordance with Indian law.

In a sign of the depth of feeling surrounding the case, the bar association at the court said none of its members was willing to represent the accused. The court is expected to assign a defense lawyer for the men.

Advocates dressed in black robes protesting outside the court called for fast justice. In the northern state of Kashmir, school girls marched with black ribbons over their mouths and demanded harsh punishment for the accused.

The case is due to be processed by a new, fast-track chamber set up in response to the crime.

While the fast-track procedure has broad support, many lawyers worry new that legislation written in haste could be unconstitutional and oppose introducing the death penalty for rape.

“A swift trial should not be at the cost of a fair trial,” Chief Justice Altamas Kabir said on Wednesday.

ANGER

Police have said the accused have admitted to torturing and raping the student “to teach her a lesson”. She fought back and bit three of them, a police source told Reuters, and the bite marks are part of the evidence against them.

After throwing her from the private bus, the driver tried to run the victim over but she was pulled away by her companion, a senior police official told Reuters.

Police have prepared a dossier of evidence and charges against the accused, which is believed to run to 1,000 pages, including testimony from the woman’s friend who survived the hour-long attack and a man who said he was robbed by the same gang prior to the rape.

Days of protests in New Delhi and other cities followed the attack. Many of the protesters have been students, infuriated by what they see as the failure of the government to protect women.

In the northeastern state of Assam on Wednesday, village women beat a politician and handed him to police for what they said was the attempted rape of a woman, police said. Anti-rape protests have also broken out in neighboring Nepal.

The government has set up two panels headed by retired judges to recommend measures to ensure women’s safety. One of the panels, due to make recommendations this month, has received some 17,000 suggestions from the public, media reported.

India’s chief justice inaugurated the first fast-track court for sexual offences on Wednesday – a long standing demand of activists to clear a court backlog.

A review of India’s penal code, which dates back to 1860, was presented to parliament last month, before the attack, and widens the definition of rape, another demand of activists.

That bill is now likely to be revised further, with chemical castration and the death penalty in rape cases among proposals under consideration.

“We want the laws to be amended in such a stringent way that before a person even thinks of touching a girl, he should feel chills down his spine,” said lawyer Suman Lata Katiyal, protesting at the south Delhi courthouse.

Hanging is only allowed in the “rarest of rare” cases according to a 1983 Supreme Court ruling. It was used for the first time in eight years in November when the lone surviving gunman from a 2008 militant attack on Mumbai, Mohammad Ajmal Kasab from Pakistan, was executed.

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The FDNY confirmed at least seven people are being treated after the shooting, which broke out at 9 am. Four people were actually shot and two people were killed, according to NBC New York. One of those people is reportedly the gunman, who was shot and killed by NYPD officers.

The other injuries are a result of people being trampled as bystanders fled the scene in panic immediately after the shooting.

The shooting took place in front of the building near 33rd Street and Fifth Avenue.

Victims of the shooting have been transported from the scene.

The gunman may have been a disgruntled employee who was fired from his job at a business inside the building yesterday. He reportedly tried to re-enter the building this morning, but was turned away by security. That’s when he exited the building and opened fire.

A large police presence, joined by the FBI, is still at the Empire State Building. The NYPD would not confirm details.

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Nugent made the comments during last weekend’s annual meeting of the National Rifle Association in St. Louis.

“If Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year,” said Nugent, a long-time NRA member. “If you can’t go home and get everybody in your lives to clean house in this vile, evil, America-hating administration, I don’t even know what you’re made out of.”

Some have interpreted his statements to elude to violence against Obama. According to CNN, a U.S. official said that Nugent will be interviewed by agents today. Nugent said he’s eager to sit down with them.

“We actually have heard from the Secret Service, and they have a duty, and I salute them, I support them,” Nugent told Glenn Beck. “I’m looking forward to our meeting tomorrow. I’m sure it’ll be a fine gathering backstage in Oklahoma.”

The Secret Service is still reeling in the wake of its own black eye, after at least 11 agents were implicated in soliciting prostitutes while in Colombia for a summit that President Obama attended. Three Secret Service employees left the agency yesterday following the investigation into misconduct.

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New Yorkers like Denise Gay, Dequan Mercurius, Samayah Bailey, Nicholas Telemaque and Tayshauna Murphy all fell victim to senseless gun violence. These are but a handful of the names we got to know these last couple months through their stories of personal tragedy. There are dozens of other victims you haven’t heard of.

Labor Day weekend was a wake-up call for many of this city’s leaders as to how serious this crisis has gotten. At least 67 people were shot in New York City in a short four-day period; at one point, there were 25 shootings in a 24-hour span. At a backyard party in the Bronx, eight young people were hit by a barrage of bullets. Along the route of the West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn, four people were wounded and at least another six were maimed in the surrounding area, three of them fatally.

These are the sons and daughters, the mothers and fathers of New York City. Gun violence is not acceptable, nor should it be considered endemic to any one community or area. This is an emergency of the highest level, and for that reason action is being taken.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the Council’s Public Private Partnership recently highlighted the need for more safe places for young people to play across our city. This effort produced the reopening of newly restored tennis courts at Brooklyn’s Boys & Girls High School and a new school playground in the Bronx that was padlocked for nearly a decade because it was dangerously unsafe.

Now the Council is launching a gun violence task force to address this serious problem. As co-chairs of the task force, we are focused on examining the root causes behind gun violence and identifying from where illegal guns are coming into this city. Poverty, education and unemployment all play into the situation facing us, which is why we will be calling on experts from these and other fields to come together.
We also need the voices of those with practical experience in our communities who can help us determine how safe residents truly feel, which includes our youth across the city. Additionally, we will develop metrics to ensure we are truly creating a safe place for our young people to learn and grow.
The future of New York City depends on it.

– Councilman Jumaane Williams represents Flatbush and Councilman Fernando Cabrera represents the Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx.
Metro does not endorse the opinions of the author, or any opinions expressed on its pages. Opposing viewpoints are welcome. Send 300-word submissions to letters@metro.us.

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Youths fought running battles with police in the northern cities of Manchester and Liverpool as well as in the Midlands overnight Tuesday.

They smashed shop windows, carted off televisions and designer clothes, and torched buildings as police armed with shields and batons struggled to contain the disturbances.

A boosted police presence meant London itself was relatively quiet after three days of violent unrest that raised questions about the divided state of modern Britain.

About 16,000 policemen patrolled London’s streets Tuesday night. Shops, pubs and businesses in many areas closed early after boarding up windows and the capital had the air of a city under siege.
“We needed a fightback and a fightback is under way,” Cameron said.

The prime minister branded the unrest, which erupted in poor, inner-city areas of London during the weekend, as nothing more than criminality.

He made no reference to social and economic conditions which community leaders say sparked the problems.

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In Salford, part of greater Manchester in northwest England, rioters threw bricks at police and set fire to buildings. A BBC cameraman was assaulted.

Television pictures showed flames leaping from shops and cars in Salford and Manchester, and plumes of thick black smoke billowing across roads.

In central Manchester, police said a clothes shop was set alight. “I can confirm a shop is on fire and 200 youths that gathered in the city center have been chased by riot police and dispersed. Seven arrests have been made so far,” a spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said.

Further south in West Bromwich and Wolverhampton, cars were burned and stores raided.

Community leaders said the violence in London — the worst for decades in the huge, multi-ethnic capital — was rooted in growing disparities in wealth and opportunity.

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Rioters throwing petrol bombs rampaged overnight through the deprived district of Tottenham in north London, setting police patrol cars, buildings and a double-decker bus on fire.

“There are Twitter conversations that people are being asked to meet again down in Tottenham, so we are all concerned — but clearly we will be much better prepared this evening,” Richard Barnes, London’s Deputy Mayor, told BBC TV. reuters

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Corey Maciel, appearing on the "Mason and Ireland" show Monday on 710 ESPN Radio in Los Angeles, said entering Dodger Stadium in Giants clothing was uncomfortable from the start.

"It was pretty hostile just walking up to the stadium — it was intimidating, to say the least," he said. "There were a lot of Dodgers fans angry that we were there. We got things thrown at us the whole time we were there — peanuts, hot dogs, wrappers — which we also expected."

It got much worse after the game. Maciel said it started with rowdy fans yelling profanities, as Stow’s party was trying to leave. Then the suspects initiated contact.

"Bryan and I were walking, side-by-side, and talking, not even about the game, about work, I think," Maciel said. "Somebody pushed Bryan. This guy came out from behind the car and pushed Bryan into me. I grabbed Bryan and rolled away. We kept walking. At that point my older brother Matt intercepted a punch on the cheek that was meant for Bryan, by the same guy that had pushed Bryan."

Maciel said his group still tried to avoid a confrontation that was inevitable.

"About five minutes later, they came up from behind us, and they caught us when we were all a little bit spread out. I never saw it coming. My other friend Jeff got hit in the mouth and Bryan got hit from behind. He got hit in the side of the head and never saw it coming."

Stow hasn’t regained consciousness. He remains in a medically induced coma and has had part of his skull removed to take pressure off his brain.

San Francisco played the Dodgers on Monday night, kicking off a three-game series. The Giants hosted family members of the 42-year old paramedic from Santa Cruz to watch the game from a team suite, as well as more than 80 members of the paramedics company AMR.

An AMR spokesman said about $58,800 was collected during the game in and around the park that will go toward helping with Stow’s medical costs.

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