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Police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, are being sued after being accused of beating a grandmother in a so-called “torture warehouse,” a new lawsuit alleges. Baton Rouge resident Ternell Brown was detained in June; but rather than taking her to the police station, Baton Rouge police officers drove her to an unmarked warehouse, according to a 18 September lawsuit she filed. Officers referred to this facility as the “Brave Cave,” where the street crimes unit held people in custody, assaulted them, and conducted strip and body-cavity searches on them, the lawsuit claimed. Police officers wrongfully informed Ms Brown that it was illegal to have different prescription medicines in the same pill container, according to the complaint. Ms Brown, 51, was allegedly arrested on suspicion of illegal drug activity – after officers discovered a legal prescription medication in her car during a traffic stop. She was taken to the warehouse and held there for two hours, the filing states. There, officers “forced her to spread her vagina and buttocks for inspection and examined her vagina using a flashlight,” despite not having a warrant, probable cause, or consent to conduct a strip or body cavity search, the suit states. After a couple of hours, Ms Brown was released without charge. The 51-year-old isn’t the first one to flag the “Brave Cave.” Jeremy Lee, a Baton Rouge resident, was arrested in January, and police took him to the warehouse, which one officer called the “Brave Cave,” WAFB previously reported. Bodycam footage captured Mr Lee sitting in a wooden chair in what appeared to be a warehouse. There, the 22-year-old was punched and kicked – although that happened off-camera, the outlet noted. After the incident, Mr Lee “was so badly beaten that authorities at East Baton Rouge Parish Prison refused to accept him” into its custody, “insisting that Mr Lee be taken to the hospital,” according to a lawsuit he filed. He was treated for broken ribs and other injuries. After the incident, Mr Lee filed a lawsuit; in August, the city’s mayor ordered the facility’s operations to be suspended “in light of the serious allegations.” The FBI is now investigating the claims, and an officer involved in Mr Lee’s alleged “Brave Cave” assault have resigned. An attorney for Ms Brown called out Police Chief Murphy Paul at a Monday press conference. “Chief Murphy Paul, instead of bringing BRPD policy in compliance with the constitution, decided to double down and endorse what his officers were doing and to insist that the illegal strip search policy that BRPD maintains was appropriate,” said Thomas Frampton. As a result of the chief’s decision, Mr Frampton said, “countless Baton Rouge citizens have been subject to illegal, sexually humiliating strip searches.” Chief Paul was interviewed by the Washington Post, although he declined to comment on the pending lawsuits, adding that an internal investigation is underway. He did, however, address the “Brave Cave” at a news conference last month, explaining that it was a narcotics processing facility owned by the parish that had been used by the police department for “approximately 20 years.” However, up until Mr Lee’s lawsuit came out, he was unaware of the term “Brave Cave,” he said. “We made a mistake on this one,” Mr Paul told the Washington Post. “I’ve got to own that.” The police chief also addressed other accusations made in Ms Brown’s complaint. The filing claims that the Baton Rouge Police Department’s strip search policy “violates the legal standard” by allowing officers to subject non-arrestees to such searches based on an officer’s suspicion alone. The suit also accuses the department of ignoring misconduct complaints by the street crimes unit. “We’ve been pretty consistent in our discipline,” Mr Paul told the Post, disagreeing with the suit’s claims. “We’ve terminated officers for bad behavior.” To demonstrate this, he noted that two officers who were once involved in the street crimes unit were placed on administrative leave on Tuesday. He added that the department has moved operations — which used to be conducted at the warehouse — to other facilities. The police chief said that before restoring the street crimes unit, he was waiting for the internal investigation to be completed. Ms Brown is suing the Baton Rouge Police Department for unreasonable search, unreasonable seizure, Monell liability, battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, negligence, and state constitutional violations. Read More A Supreme Court redistricting ruling gave hope to Black voters. They're still waiting for new maps Louisiana moves juveniles from adult penitentiary but continues to fight court order to do so Prosecutors set to lay out case against officers in death of unarmed Black man in Denver suburb

A missing woman is feared dead after a blood stain was found in her home and police discovered evidence that something was dragged into a lake in her backyard. Sheryl Ann Siddall, 57, was reported missing on Monday after she failed to answer phone calls from her family. Family members say they last spoke to Ms Siddall, who lives in Liberty County, Texas, on 12 September. A Texas deputy searched the 57-year-old’s home and found a 52-year-old man who said he was buying the home from Ms Siddall. He also told police Ms Siddall told him she was going to visit her sister in Oklahoma. The man was arrested and booked into the Liberty County Jail on a charge of felon in possession of firearms, police said. In a statement, police said the deputy found a bloodstain on the floor of Ms Siddall’s home. “Suspecting that foul play may be involved, the deputy immediately backed out of the room and called for investigators,” the statement continued. Investigators also said they found evidence that suggested something was dragged into the lake that borders Ms Siddall’s backyard. A Texas game warden searched Horseshoe Lake using a sonar system on his boat, deputies said, but he did not find any other evidence. Another search of the property was carried out by investigators using cadaver dogs on 19 September. Ms Siddall’s cellphone was last pinged near her home, deputies said, and her car and purse were both found at the home along with other personal possessions. An investigation is ongoing. Read More Husband of mother missing with three young children says he’s ‘not concerned’ Family sues department store after cleaner’s body lay undiscovered in bathroom for four days Teen found drenched with accelerant and set on fire after mother begged her to stay home

Demonstrators want to know how popular 27-year-old singer MohBad died last week.

President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaned into their four-decade friendship and highlighted areas of common ground Wednesday at a long-anticipated meeting in New York, marking the first time the two leaders have met one-on-one since the prime minister returned to office last December.

Ancient timber preserved in a riverbed suggests humans were building wooden structures 500,000 years ago.

Paul Murdaugh was pulled over by police for hosting a booze-fuelled boat party just days before he was brutally murdered by his father – and at a time when he was awaiting trial over a 2019 deadly boat wreck. In the new series of Netflix’s “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal”, released on Wednesday, housekeeper and family friend Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson revealed that the 22-year-old had a fresh brush with the law in the run-up to the 7 June 2021 murders. His father Alex Murdaugh was said to be taking care of the matter. The incident took place around a week before Memorial Day weekend, when Ms Turrubiate-Simpson said Maggie told her that “Paul got in trouble again”. “He was on the boat with friends and they were drinking,” she said. “But they called Alex and he said he was going to take care of it.” Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill also confirmed that the DNR had stopped the 22-year-old with a boat full of people of board. The group was already drinking alcohol from a cooler “full of booze” and were “ready to go out on the water” in the boat. “The DNR held him back and took all of the booze off the boat,” said Ms Hill. The court clerk said that the incident is shocking given that – just two years earlier – Paul allegedly caused a drunken boat wreck that killed his close friend Mallory Beach, 19. “You would think someone who would be appearing in court to decide if they are going to jail for killing somebody from a boat crash just two years before would not be still found on a boat partying,” she said. It was one night in February 2019 and Paul was allegedly drunk driving the Murdaugh family’s boat and crashed it, throwing his friends overboard. The others survived but Beach as missing. Her body washed ashore a week later. Paul was charged with multiple felonies over the boat wreck and was facing 25 years in prison at the time of his murder. At Murdaugh’s trial, prosecutors revealed that the disgraced attorney was also being sued by Beach’s family. On the day of the murders, Murdaugh was working on the case. A lawsuit hearing had been scheduled for 10 June 2021 – a hearing which prosecutors said would have exposed Mr Murdaugh’s ruinous finances. Murdaugh was also investigated by a grand jury investigation into allegations he tried to influence the other teens who survived the boat crash to get Paul off the hook. Prosecutors said that the boat wreck – and the escalating legal troubles it had brought – was the catalyst for murdering Maggie and Paul. Now, details of May 2021 boating incident – and Murdaugh’s apparent plans to fix it – appear to indicate another “pressure point” for Murdaugh in the run-up to the 7 June 2021 killings. “It makes you wonder if it was another pressure point for Alex knowing that he could not control anything that Paul did,” said Ms Hill in the show. “It just added to the pressures that were adding up in Alex’s life.” Ms Turrubiate-Simpson said that the incident also cast doubts on Murdaugh’s claims – and that of his son Buster when he took the witness stand in his defence – that things were “normal” among the family prior to the murders. Jurors had been shown footage of the family and some close friends singing “Happy Birthday” to Murdaugh during a Memorial Day weekend celebration. Buster had described the day as a “normal Memorial Day weekend”. Ms Turrubiate-Simpson said that description was “not true”. “That’s not true... There was a lot going on at the time,” she said. At the trial, jurors heard how a “perfect storm” led Murdaugh to kill his closest family members, arguing that he wanted to distract from what later transpired to be a decade-long multi-million-dollar fraud scheme – at a time when it was on the brink of being exposed. On the day of the murders, jurors heard testimony of how he was confronted by Jeanne Seckinger, the CFO at his law firm PMPED, about missing payments. Murdaugh had stolen the money from the firm and his clients – and didn’t have the money to pay back. The boat crash lawsuit was also going to expose his financial crimes. And his father Randolph – the family patriarch – was dying. Randolph died on 10 June 2021 – three days after Maggie and Paul. Ms Turrubiate-Simpson said that she thinks the family knew that Murdaugh would “lose it” once his father died. “I think [Maggie] knew at that point that if something happens to Randolph, Alex is going to lose it because he was really close to his dad – like Paul,” he said. “It might not have been spoken but I think the family knew that once Mr Randolph was no longer alive the family dynamic was going to change. There was not going to be that family unity any more.” The disgraced legal scion was convicted in March of the brutal murders after a gruelling six-week trial. Now, he is fighting to be granted a new trial, accusing court clerk Ms Hill of tampering with the jury. Even if he is granted a new trial, Murdaugh will likely spend his life behind bars as he is facing a slew of state and federal charges over a slew of financial crimes. On Monday, he reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors – agreeing to plead guilty to 22 federal charges and admitting that he stole millions of dollars from law firm clients for his own personal benefit. He is headed to court on Thursday to officially enter his plea – marking the first time that he has ever pleaded guilty to committing a crime. Read More Murdaugh Netflix show airs new bombshell claims as Alex strikes plea deal for financial crimes – live Alex Murdaugh’s bombshell confession before infamous botched hitman plot revealed Alex Murdaugh pleads guilty to committing crime for first time

The Alabama band director who was arrested after refusing to stop his band's performance at a high school football game is grappling with the aftermath of being tased by police, which his attorney says was unacceptable and left students traumatized.

Bats could hold the key to unlocking new ways to combat cancer, a new study suggests. A paper published by Oxford University Press, looks at the rapid evolution of bats for their abilities to both host and survive infections such as Covid-19 as well as cancer. The animals are known to have a strong immune system which helps fight off many viruses and diseases. These mammals are also thought to have played a role in the emergence of Covid-19 and scientists say such characteristics are interesting to investigate due to the implications it might have on human health. According to the research, understanding the mechanisms of the bat’s immune system that allows these animals to fight off viral infections – may pave the way to understanding how to prevent disease outbreaks from animals to people. To conduct the study, researchers sequenced the genomes of two bat species - the Jamaican fruit bat and the Mesoamerican mustached bat. The team used advanced technology from Oxford Nanopore Technologies and bat samples collected by the American Museum of Natural History in Belize. They then compared the bat genomes to those of other mammals. The results revealed that bats possessed genetic adaptations in proteins which are related to DNA repair and cancer suppression. It was found that bats had adaptations in six DNA repair-related proteins and 46 cancer-related proteins. The study also found that bats had more than double the number of altered cancer-related genes compared to other mammals, which provided further evidence that they have the ability to suppress cancer. “By generating these new bat genomes and comparing them to other mammals we continue to find extraordinary new adaptations in antiviral and anticancer genes,” said the paper’s lead author, Armin Scheben. “These investigations are the first step towards translating research on the unique biology of bats into insights relevant to understanding and treating ageing and diseases, such as cancer, in humans.” The results open up new paths for understanding and studying the links between cancer and immunity, which offers hope that these insights from bats might possibly lead to new treatments for human illnesses. According to the United States Department of the Interior, there are over 1,400 species of bats worldwide and are mostly found in extreme deserts and polar regions. In the US and Canada, there are about 45 species of bats. Read More British bats ‘can help identify coronaviruses with potential to infect humans’ Coronavirus origins still a mystery 3 years into pandemic Groundbreaking migraine treatment offers ‘new hope’ for patients World Sepsis Day: What is the condition and its symptoms? Duran Duran’s Andy Taylor says he’s ‘asymptomatic’ after end-of-life diagnosis

By Blake Brittain WASHINGTON The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Wednesday suspended Judge Pauline

The White House issued a stark warning Wednesday that a looming government shutdown could threaten crucial federal programs, blasting "extreme House Republicans" as lawmakers struggle to reach consensus on a funding plan.

A sheriff’s deputy in Texas who left his infant child in a hot car for three hours has been fired and arrested. Antonio Almaraz, 31, left his two-month-old baby alone in his car on Monday, as temperatures in San Antonio reached around 90 degrees Fahrenheit. According to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, Mr Almaraz had taken his child to a routine pediatrics appointment at 9am. He returned home an hour later and left his child in the car parked outside. At about 1pm, the baby was found unresponsive in the car. She was rushed to Methodist Hospital and their condition remains critical. The hospital reported the incident to authorities, but according to the sheriff’s office, Mr Almazaz initially gave a different narrative when he was questioned about what happened. Mr Almaraz had been charged with injury to a child, endangering a child and abandoning a child, with a bail set at $80,000. The deputy had only started his job in February and has now since been fired due to the treatment of his child. He will not be allowed to appeal his dismissal nor be eligible for rehire, no matter what the outcome of his case is, the sheriff’s office said. “Given the amount of awareness in the community regarding leaving children unattended in vehicles, there is absolutely no valid excuse for this to have occurred,” Sheriff Javier Salazar said in a statement. “My family and I are praying for the best possible outcome for this precious baby.” The inside of a vehicle can increase over 20 degrees within ten minutes, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states. It was only in late July that another infant was stuck in a hot car in San Antonio, Texas. The baby was accidentally locked inside the car and the parents took to smashing in the windows before it was too late. Read More Video captures father smashing windshield to rescue baby from hot car Suspected serial killer Billy Chemirmir killed in Texas prison Black student suspended again after punishment over his hairstyle

A spokesman for Donald Trump said Wednesday that Donald Trump Jr.'s account on X -- the platform formerly known as Twitter -- was compromised after posts appeared that shared racist posts.