Three men have been arrested in connection with a horrific video showing a New Jersey, 21-year-old being stripped and beaten with a belt because of a $20 debt.

By KUSH AZRAEL

Staff Reporter

United States

NEW JERSEY – Three men have been arrested in connection with a horrific video showing a New Jersey, 21-year-old being stripped and beaten with a belt because of a $20 debt. The three men have been charged with robbery and aggravated assault. The haunting 2-and-a-half minute video starts with the young man being ordered to strip naked as he is berated by the perpetrators. Then one person pours water on his body while another demands money but when he refuses to hand over the cash the beating starts.

TENNESSEE – A cousin of the late Emitt Till would like rapper, Lil Wayne, to understand just how damaging it was when he rapped a vulgar reference to the Black teen whose death in 1955 became a significant moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Till’s cousin, Airicka Gordon-Taylor, says Till’s family would like an apology from Lil Wayne for the disturbing lyric on rapper Future’s “Karate Chop” remix. But, more than that, she’d like the platinum-selling New Orleans rapper to understand how his comparison of a sex act to the 14 year-old’s torture and death in Mississippi is hurtful to the Black community.

GEORGIA – Bishop Eddie Long has been sued by former New Birth Missionary Baptist members who say the mega church pastor encouraged them to invest money with a company despite being told the investor was running a $3 million capital deficit. The suit alleges Long’s assistant had been warned by an unidentified caller that Ephren W. Taylor was not trustworthy nearly two weeks before the self-professed “social capitalist” held a series of financial seminars in October 2009. New Birth, Long and Taylor are all named in the suit filed by 12 members who say they lost more than $1 million in the alleged Ponzi scheme.

Europe

FRANCE – The trial of six members of a French charity, convicted in Chad for trying to kidnap over 100 children, finished last week. Attorneys for the defendants argued that they had been mesmerized by a charismatic cult leader. Members of Zoes Arc charity were caught trying to take 103 children fromChadintoFrance. They say they were rescuing orphaned children fromSudan’s western Darfur region, to bring them toFranceto be adopted. The defendants were returned to France on condition that they would face trial, but the group’s founder and his partner now live in South Africa. They were still tried, in absentia.

Africa

SOUTH AFRICA–South Africa’sFortHareUniversityhas shut down its main campus following violent student protests over a 90 percent rise in residence fees. University officials said the intimidation of staff and the destruction of property had resulted in the campus’ closure. Police fired rubber bullets to disperse students burning tires. Fort Hare was once a famous university where African leaders, such as Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe, studied. Twenty-one students were arrested.

Caribbean

BAHAMAS – Human rights organization, Amnesty International, has called for an independent body to investigate police abuses after two men recently died in police custody. Amnesty International said the deaths underscored the urgent need for greater accountability of alleged wrongdoing by police, and that it has documented several human rights abuses by police.