Day: January 3, 2014

The family of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who died in 2005 after almost 15 years in a vegetative state, has urged continued life support for a California teenager left brain dead after a tonsillectomy.

Jahi McMath, 13, was declared brain dead after the operation last month, and her doctors and a judge agree there is no chance she will ever wake up, CNN reports. Her family said she started hemorrhaging and went into cardiac arrest following the routine tonsil removal procedure.

A judge has ruled that Children’s Hospital Oakland must turn off the McMath’s ventilator at 5 p.m. on Jan. 7. McMath’s family wants her moved to a New York facility that they believe can help their daughter, but McMath’s uncle said the hospital “refused to agree to allow us to proceed in that matter.”

“Together with our team of experts, Terri’s Network believes Jahi’s case is representative of a very…

The number of homicides in the United States’ biggest cities hit record lows again in 2013 as the murder rate nationally continued to drop to levels not seen since the 1960s.

According to year-end data released by police departments around the country, Chicago still leads the country in homicides with 415, but that number declined 18% from 2012 and is the fewest since 1965. Crime has been a problem in pockets of the city’s South Side and West Side neighborhoods for years. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel hired a new superintendent of police soon after he was elected to shift the department’s strategy in an attempt to prevent future crimes. But while the murder rate declined to roughly 43 homicides per 100,000 residents (down from 50 in 2012), the number of murders in Chicago still outpaced every other major metropolis in the U.S.

New York had 333 murders in 2013, less…

The California Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for an undocumented immigrant to a get law license, which will make the state the first to open its legal industry to people living in the country illegally.

The case is the result of a legal challenge brought by Sergio Garcia, 36, who came to the United States 20 years ago to pick almonds with his father before working his way through community college, Reuters reports. Garcia went to law school, passed the bar and applied for citizenship in 1994, something he is still working toward, the Associated Press reports.

Garcia is challenging a 1996 law that prohibits government agencies — or groups that use public funds — from granting professional licenses to people living in the U.S. illegally. The case has put the Obama administration, which opposes granting the license, at odds with state officials, including the California Bar Association and…

A Chinese doctor, Zhang Shuxia, admitted to stealing babies from families she was close to and then selling them into human trafficking, state media said. She is expected to face harsh punishment under Chinese law.

Six of the seven babies who were stolen have been rescued, but one girl died, local media said.

In 2012, almost 1900 cases of child trafficking were uncovered in China, according to China Daily.

READ: TIME’s cover story on China’s one-child policy.

Just in time for your daily cute break: watch a baby panda adorably try to keep its balance on a blue toy pony and then fall off. Someone tell this little one not to fret and get back on the horse.