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On Wednesday, nine men were jailed due to sexual abuse and rape of two teenage girls at a children's home in Bradford, England. A tenth defendant was found not-guilty. The nine men were prosecuted for 22 different crimes. These included rape and inciting child prostitution. Judge Durham Hall QC said they "appear not to have shown any respect for the minimum standards of decent behaviour." Prosecutor Kama Melly QC said the victims were "ripe and vulnerable to manipulation" and had been used "to satisfy [the accused's] sexual desires". One of

On Monday, attorneys general from sixteen states filed a combined lawsuit against the state of emergency United States President Donald Trump declared last Friday so he could fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border. The motion claims Trump's declaration is unconstitutional, and that the states filing suit have standing to do so because building the wall would divert funding away from programs that would otherwise be performed to the benefit of these states. Because only Congress may allocate funds in this way, reads the motion, the declaration

On Wednesday, scientists from the University of Miami and Apex Shark Expeditions published a study in Scientific Reports, an on-line journal, documenting the disappearance of the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) from a specific area off the coast of South Africa. The study found that when the whites disappeared, a Jurassic-era predator called the sevengill shark (Notorhynchus cepedianus) moved in. The study was a collaborative project between Neil Hammerschlag of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the Univers

The Hotel Arpit Palace in the Karol Bagh area of the Indian capital, New Delhi, caught fire yesterday morning. At least seventeen people died and 35 were rescued, according to officials, some of whom were hospitalised. Many of the affected guests were Indian; the Myanma embassy confirmed two Buddhist pilgrims from Myanmar also died. The area is popular with visitors, with budget hotels and shopping districts. Firefighters dispatched around 30 vehicles; personnel reportedly had control of the blaze by 8:00am local time. No cause was immediatel

German migrant marine rescue charity Sea-Eye on Sunday renamed their ship after Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian child who drowned offshore of Turkey. Relatives of the boy attended the renaming ceremony on the Spanish island of Majorca. Kurdi, his brother, and his mother were among eleven migrants who died in a storm on the Mediterranean Sea in 2015; they had, his surviving father says, paid people smugglers to take them from Turkey to Greece in a small inflatable boat. A photograph of his remains on a Turkish beach drew widespread attentio

On Saturday, Thailand's Thai Raksa Chart Party withdrew from using Princess Ubolratana Mahidol as their candidate for prime minister in response to a statement from her younger brother, King Maha Vajiralongkorn. Shortly after she formally filed for candidacy, the palace issued a statement to the effect the king considered it inappropriate for Thai royals to run for elected office. The constitutionality of the Princess's candidacy had also been challenged by the opposing military political party. The palace issued the following statement from

The Center for Biological Diversity announced on Wednesday the monarch butterfly population counted over-wintering in Mexico was 144% greater than last year, with the highest overall population since the winter of 2006–2007. Scientists cautioned against an excess of optimism for the species. Remarked Center for Biological Diversity scientist Tierra Curry, "This reprieve from bad news on monarchs is a thank-you from the butterflies to all the people who planted native milkweeds and switched to organic corn and soy products[...] But one good wea

Bruce McArthur, from Toronto, Canada, on Tuesday admitted his guilt in eight murders. McArthur pleaded guilty to each crime at the Superior Court. Beginning in 2010 and continuing for seven years, McArthur murdered gay men; all but one victim was found dismembered in large planters at a house he had access to. The eighth was discovered in a nearby ravine. McArthur's first victim of the eight was 40-year-old Skandaraj Navaratnam, a former boyfriend and employee of McArthur. The 67-year-old killer had kept a bracelet of Navaratnam's. Other item

Twin bombings yesterday struck the Jolo Cathedral in Mindanao, Philippines. The second blast affected first responders following the first; between the two blasts, at least 20 were killed. According to Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares of the police of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the confirmed deaths are fourteen civilians, five Armed Forces personnel, and one member of the Coast Guard. This revised downwards an earlier toll of 27 dead. Mijares further claimed 90 civilians were wounded, as were seventeen from the Armed Forces

In findings published earlier this month in Ecological Applications, scientists from the University of Washington and Center for Ecosystem Sentinels examine the reason for the plummeting numbers of female Magellanic penguins, Spheniscus magellanicus, that have been reported at the birds' breeding sites in South America over the past twenty years and more. Wikinews caught up with postdoctoral researcher and study co-author Natasha Gownaris to learn more. In a press release, Gownaris said, "Two decades ago, there were about 1.5 adult male Magell

Professor Michael Siegel of Boston University, co-author of a new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on January 17, declared household gun ownership rates within the United States to be "the strongest single predictor of a state's youth suicide rate". Wikinews interviewed Siegel to learn more. Siegel and colleagues including predoctoral fellow Anita Knopov, the lead author, compared data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2004, when the body last surveyed US gun owners, to corresponding informa

A car bomb was on Monday rammed into a military base in Maidan Shahr in the centre of Afghanistan's Maidan Wardak province. Dozens died in the attack, reportedly conducted by the Taliban. The training centre belongs to the National Directorate for Security; it was targeted with a captured Humvee military car packed with explosives, followed by two gunmen. Some estimated death tolls, provided anonymously by officials to journalists, exceeded 100. Sharif Hotak, of the Maidan Wardak provincial council, described witnessing 35 bodies in one hospi