OHIO, USA
Throughout February, Oberlin College discovered racial slurs displayed across campus, such as “n—– oven” graffiti in an elevator and “whites only” written above a water fountain. On March 4, there were sightings of a man dressed in a hooded white cloak, similar to those worn by KKK members during lynchings of blacks in America. The school, which is renowned for having been an Underground Railroad stop and one of the first U.S. colleges to admit black students, canceled all Monday classes for a “Day of Solidarity,” and students protested the recent hate crimes.
SOUTH AFRICA
In a country that has been deemed “the world’s rape capital,” there are no longer rape kits available to convict men of the sexual offense. A government survey revealed that one in four South African men have committed rape. Of those men, half have raped more than once. Now, hospitals are resorting to the use of expired rape kits or are forced to turn women away altogether. Convicting men for sexual assault without DNA evidence has been nearly impossible.
MISSISSIPPI, USA
An anonymous boy born with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS has been attentively treated by doctors at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore, Md. for the first 12 to 15 months of his life. The child now tests HIV-free after being without treatment for more than one full year. On Sunday’s 2013 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta, Ga., he was officially declared the world’s first case of a successfully cured HIV carrier.
VENEZUELA
Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, died at age 58 on Tuesday after a long battle with cancer. Chavez first took office in 1999 and received much support from his country’s poor. Often a divisive force in global politics, Chavez’s relationship with the U.S. was not always positive, but he managed to befriend several countries’ dictators. Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro currently stands as Chavez’s successor.
