Dad Charged After Girl Dies on Cold Walk

Cornerback Jasper Howard, 20, was stabbed to death

(NEWSER) - A University of Connecticut football player has died after being stabbed on campus early this morning. Jasper Howard, a junior cornerback from Miami and the first member of his family to attend college, was 20. Two groups of people scuffled as a dance at the student union was letting out, and at least one other person was stabbed but survived, police said. The perpetrator has not been captured, police told the Hartford Courant. More»

Police beef up patrols after savage gang melee

(NEWSER) - Chicago police are stepping up patrols today at a high school where a 16-year-old honor student's gruesome beating death in a gang melee was captured on video. Students scream in horror as Derrion Albert crumples to the ground and covers his head in vain as he's repeatedly pummeled with wooden planks in the video shot by a female student. Police are questioning suspects in the tape, which was turned over by the student to police and the local Fox news station. More»

(NEWSER) - Diarrhea kills 1.6 million children under 5 every year—more than AIDS or malaria—and gets a fraction of the funding. But a deceptively simple new treatment may mark a breakthrough, Time reports. Zinc supplements appear to dramatically decrease diarrhea-related deaths—one afflicted village in Mali hasn’t had a single death since the pills arrived. Zinc “has totally taken off,” a researcher says. “It looks like real medicine and is not given out for free.” More»

(NEWSER) - Almost 250 children in Peru under the age of 5 have died during one of the coldest winters in years, reports the BBC. Scientists blame climate change for the early arrival of severe temperatures, which began as early as March. Kids exposed to the cold have contracted hypothermia and respiratory infections like pneumonia as the southern winter wears on. Peru has declared a state of emergency, but many have accused the government's lack of action for the deaths. More»

(NEWSER) - Michael Jackson’s reputation will forever be tainted by the numerous allegations of child molestation levied against him, the New York Daily News reports. Jackson was never convicted of any crime, but he did settle out of court on two occasions, once for $20 million. A Jackson attorney said the singer settled because he didn’t like “courtrooms and lawyers.” More»