Recently in National Category

The uncle of the two suspects charged with the Boston Marathon bombing, Ruslan Tsarni spoke to news sources Wednesday about what he thinks drove his nephews to take such extreme action against US citizens.

Tsarni told CNN that he believes that the oldest brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was "brainwashed" by a friend in 2009 in his Cambridge, Maryland home.

"This person just took his brain," said Tsarni.

The Tsarnaev was an aspiring Olympic boxer just years before, according to CNN. His mindset leading up to the bombing remained unknown.

Tsarni kept the name of the person who apparently influenced Tsarnaev to himself; however, he did say that this person was an Armenian who had converted to Islam.

The father of the two boys had initially defended them, saying that they were simply incapable of such things; however, by Saturday their father was on his was from Russia to the US. He sent messages to his son saying "tell them everything."

Their mother continues to defend them, saying that the youngest brother, Dzhokhar, would have told her.

"He wouldn't hide it," she claimed, "nobody talked about terrorism."

A U.S. congressman told news sources that Canadian authorities have arrested two men who were accused of carrying out an Al-Qaeda supported attack on a passenger train going from Canada to the U.S.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced earlier Monday that they had arrested Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35, according to CNN.

The two men are charged with receiving support from al-Qaeda to carry out an attack and murder people VIA train in the greater Toronto area. Assistant Police Commissioner James Malizia said that "support," in this case, means receiving direction and guidance, reported CNN.

BBC News reported that the suspects will appear in court on Tuesday.

Chief Spt Jennifer Strachan said that the two men had chosen "a specific route but not necessarily a specific train."

CNN reported that al-Qaeda has studied railway attacks and viewed them as cheap, simple attacks which could potentially cause a lot of harm.

There was no connection between this attempt and the Boston marathon attack, according to BBC News.

An upstate New York school system is apologizing Monday for an assignment given to students in three Albany High School English classes which was due Wednesday asking students to tell the instructor why "Jews are evil and can be dismissed or punished," according to news sources.

The teacher has not been identified, according to CNN, but the assignment was intended to flex students' persuasive writing abilities.

Marguerite Vanden Wygnaard, the school district superintendent, apologized Monday for the assignment, according to NBC News

"This assignment for some of our students at Albany High School was completely unacceptable. It displayed a level of insensitivity that we will not tolerate in our school community," Vanden Wyngaard said at a news conference.

According to CNN, one-third of students given the assignment refused to do it, Vanden Wyngaard said.

Vanden Wyngaard told NBC News that there would be disciplinary action, though it has not yet been deiced what that will be yet, and that the teacher was removed from the classroom.

Earlier this year a New York City school asked fourth graders to do a math assignment involving slaves on ships which also sparked outrage among parents and administrators, according to CNN.

According to records, the driver of the bus involved in an accident in Texas Thursday was investigated in a fatal accident that took place 15 years ago, reported news sources.

Two people were killed and dozens more were rushed to a hospital on Thursday when a charter bus overturned on a Dallas-area turnpike headed to Oklahoma. There were 46 passengers aboard, according to CNN.

The driver, Loyde Rieve, was confirmed to be the driver of the bus that overturned by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Court records showed that Rieve was also driving in an accident that occured in 1998, according to ABC News.

Records state that a man had stopped to help an accident scene when he was run over by the bus driven by Rieve. Rieve was investigated for the accident but a grand jury declined to indict him, CNN reported.

Investigators told CNN that it is too soon to tell what the cause of Thursday's accident was and it will be a lengthy investigation.

The family of teen girl who committed suicide Sunday is calling for Canadian officials to file criminal charges against those who allegedly raped her.

Reteah Parsons, a 17-year-old high school student from Halifax, Nova Scotia was taken off of life support Sunday after she tried to hang herself. Their family told news organizations that they revisited Canadian justice officials who assured them that they would take a second look at Parsons's case, according to CNN.

Parsons was allegedly raped by four boys two years ago when Parsons was 15. Following the incident, a photograph of Parsons apparently having sex with one of the boys began to circulate, resulting in a good deal of bullying, CNN reported.

After much public outrage and Parsons's mother, Leah Parsons, taking to social media and the airwaves, Canadian officials say that they will review the case, reported the National Post.

The anonymous hacking organization known as Anonymous, which outed those involved in the recent Ohio gang-rape case, threatened to out the four boys involved in Parsons's case, according to the National Post.

Police say that a man who crashed his car into a California Walmart Sunday is suspected of being on drugs at the time of the accident, according to news sources.

The man, Haamid Ade Zaid, allegedly drove his car into the store, crashing through automatic glass doors and knocking over a beer display, and got out and began hitting people inside the store with a metal object. One cashier suffered severe injuries to the head, according to ABC News.

Zaid was held at the Santa Clara County Jail without bail Monday, says San Jose police officer Albert Morales.

CNN reports that Zaid, 33, is suspected of having been under the influence of drugs, but his motive is still under investigation.

None of the injuries caused by the incident were life-threatening, according to ABC News.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Two teen boys were charged with the murder of a 13-month-old Friday, according to sources.

The two boys, De'Marquise Elkins, 17, and 14-year-old who isn't being named because he is a minor were charged with the murder of Sherry West's child, Antonio. The 14-year-old is scheduled to appear in court on Monday and it has not been confirmed if Elkins will appear in court, according to CNN.

West told reporters that the incident occurred at 9 a.m. on Thursday as she was walking home from the post office with Antonio in a stroller.

"A boy approached me and told me he wanted my money, and I told him I didn't have any money," said West. It was then that the boy opened fire, injuring her in the leg and head The boy then walked over and shot her baby in the face, according to the LA Times.

Police looked at school attendance records to see who had been absent the day of the shooting and then arrested the two boys, according to the LA Times.

Elkins will be charged for first-degree murder in the case, according to CNN.

A fire swept through a ranch-style Kentucky home Saturday morning, taking the lives of the couple who lived there and 5 children in the house, according to news sources.

The couple, Jesse Disney and Nina Nicole Asher, were in their twenties and had plans to get married, according to Fox News. The Knox County coroner said that Asher had been about 12 weeks pregnant.

Three of the children who perished in the fire belonged to Asher from a previous relationship. They were William, 3; Camden, 2; and Abigail, 8 months old, reported CNN.

The other two victims, Payton and Brielle Cox, had come to sleep over for the night and were both 2 years old, according to CNN.

Gino Cima, the uncle of Disney, said that he had tried to save the family from the fire but by the time he had reached them it was too late.

Once the firefighters arrived, Cima told them that there were babies in the house, according to Fox News.

There is no clear conclusion as to what caused the fire, however, foul play is not suspected, according to CNN

Fox News also reported that police said Sunday that no further information about the fire would be released until Monday.

Doctors announced Sunday that a baby born with H.I.V. two years ago now lacks any evidence of the virus in her blood, according to news sources.

The baby, born in 2011 is one of an estimated 330,000 newly infected babies from that year according to the United Nations. The mother of the child was known to have AIDS when she gave birth to the child. The baby was immediately treated with drugs in hopes of controlling the virus, according to the New York Times.

If the baby turns out to be cured of the disease after further tests and more time given to be sure, she will be the second well-documented case of a cure in the world. This could lead to further research aimed at the cure, though some experts say that the findings may not be useful to adults who have contracted the disease, reports the New York Times.

CNN reported that because the mother herself wasn't diagnosed until close to the time of delivery, doctors could not treat the child in the womb as they would have hoped. Doctor Hannah Gay said that she treated the baby about 30 hours after birth and after a couple of days concluded that the baby had contracted H.I.V. in the womb.

The child remained on the drugs for 15 months and then her mother stopped the treatment. After 8 to 10 months, the baby had no evidence left of the disease in her blood, according to CNN.
Only about 30 percent of mothers who have contracted the disease pass it to their children, CNN reports.

A New York man admitted to using a baseball bat to smash up a head shop after his son overdosed on bath salts sold at the store, report news sources.

According to the Washington Post, Dan Avery, 49, of Watertown pleaded guilty to criminal mischief for breaking glass and a counter top at Tebb's Headshop.

Avery said that after going into the shop where his 24-year-old son bought bath salts and being shown how to use the merchandise, he "just went crazy," reports the Washington Post.

Avery's son was hospitalized after overdosing on the bath salts and did not survive. Bath salts are synthetic drugs which are said to have the effects of cocaine, LSD, and methamphetamine, according to the Pioneer Press.

Avery was sentenced Friday to a one year conditional discharge and ordered to pay $638 in damages, reports the Pioneer Press.