More than 100 youths charged in NY gang wars

NEW YORK: More than 100 members of three New York City street gangs who waged years of deadly turf wars have been charged.

The three gangs operating in west Harlem were accused of two homicides, 19 non-fatal shootings and 50 incidents in which firearms were used, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said Wednesday.

The 103 indictments capped a 4.5-year investigation.

Many of those charged were taken into custody Wednesday.

"The deadly and dangerous feud between the Manhattanville and Grant Houses dates back decades," Vance said. "In the last four years, it has escalated into a bloody turf war marked by violence for the sake of violence.

"He said prosecutors and investigators analyzed more than 40,000 prison calls, screened hundreds of hours of surveillance video and reviewed more than a million pages of social media exchanges.

The gangs in some cases recruited members as young as 10 and 14 to carry out violent crimes, authorities said.

Two youths placing anti-judiciary banners nabbed

ISLAMABAD: The Special Branch (SB), the spy agency of the Islamabad Police, has arrested two teenagers hoisting banners against the judiciary on different roads of the federal capital on Wednesday, the SB sources said.

The sources said that a Rawalpindi-based group of people involved in spreading hatred against the judiciary was headed by a person identified as Abdul Rashid living in Banni Mohallah, Rawalpindi, who escaped from his house after the arrest of both the youths.

SSP Waqar Chuhan, when contacted, confirmed the report, saying that the boys were hoisting banners against the judiciary. He said that the SB handed both the youths over to the Aabpara Police for further investigation.

The SSP said the two boys were identified as Mohammad Nasir, son of Zahoor, resident of Nawan Shehr Road, Kabirwala, Dist Khanewal, and Mohammad Waqar, son of Abdul Ghaffar, resident of Chak 7/8 AR, Mian Channoo, adding that ages of both the suspects were 15/16 years.

He said that they were living with Rashid in Banni Mohallah, and that both did not know from where Abdul Rashid got published the anti-judiciary banners.The Aabpara Police have registered a case against both of them and the prime accused Rashid, and sent teams to hunt him down.The police are unaware who was behind the campaign against the judiciary. However, it will be revealed after the arrest of the prime accused, Rashid.

Rise in Type 1, 2 diabetes among US youths: study

WASHINGTON: Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are rising significantly among young people in the United States, according to new research that warns of a growing epidemic in American youth.

Type 1 diabetes rose 21 percent among children and teenagers from between 2001 and 2009, said the study in based on three million children and adolescents.

Type 2 diabetes increased 30 percent over the same period, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Saturday.

Type 1 diabetes appears most often in children and is a disorder in which the pancreas does not make insulin, leading to too much glucose in the blood. Those with type 1 diabetes need to take insulin for the rest of their lives.

Type 2 diabetes is more common, and occurs when blood sugar levels are too high and the body doesn´t make insulin well enough. It can be controlled through healthy diet, exercise and medications.

The population studied came doctor-diagnosed cases from five centers in California, Colorado, Ohio, South Carolina, and Washington state, and included some American Indian reservations in Arizona and New Mexico.

Type 1 diabetes was studied in youths aged 0 to 19, and Type 2 in those aged 10-19.

Researchers said more study is needed to determine the reasons for the rise.

Previous studies have found similar rises of Type 1 diabetes, and some scientists have projected that the population with this disease would nearly triple -- from 179,387 in 2010 to 587,477 in 2050.

The JAMA study also found that type 1 diabetes was on the rise among minority youths as well as whites.

"The increase in prevalence among US minorities documented herein is of concern, given that minority youth are more likely to have poor glycemic control, known to be associated with the serious complications of type 1 diabetes."

The study also projected that type 2 diabetes would increase four-fold -- from 22,820 in 2010 to 84,131 in 2050.These increases "are important because such youth with diabetes will enter adulthood with several years of disease duration, difficulty in treatment, an increased risk of early complications," the study said, cautioning that the disease could be even more common in generations to come. (AFP)