Police in a Mexico City suburb arrested a mother and several relatives Thursday for allegedly gouging out the eyes of her 5-year-old son in what authorities said appeared to have been a drug-fueled ritual.

The boy was taken to a hospital in Nezahualcoyotl, a part of Mexico state bordering Mexico City, in serious condition early Thursday and later transferred by helicopter to a more specialized facility in the capital, officials said.

Nezahualcoyotl spokesman Fernando Chavez said a passing police car was flagged down on the street by someone who reported the incident and when officers entered the home they found the mother in shock with the boy in her arms.

“Once the woman allowed local police to check the boy, they were astonished to see the boy had no eyeballs,” the government said in a statement.

Mexico state prosecutor Isaac Acevedo told local media that a total of eight people had been detained and that investigators believed the mother herself gouged the boy’s eyes out with her fingers. The boy’s father was apparently not in the home at the time.

The crime appeared to have been part of a ritual, but was not apparently related to the Santa Muerte or Saint Death cult, some of whose followers were recently charged with the sacrificial killings of two 10-year-old boys and a 55-year-old woman in northern Sonora state, he said.

The boy’s aunt and uncle were also apparently at the house when the adults began using some unspecified drug, the spokesman said. Chavez said one witness told police she had passed out under the influence of drugs and when she regained consciousness, the boy’s eyes were gone.

The adults have not yet been charged in the case, but are being held pending investigation. Two children…

Michelle Butler, 20, is facing charges after nurses found maggots in her 10-month old baby’s diaper, reports CBS.com.

The South Carolina mother took her sick baby to a neighbor’s home, who immediately noticed that the child had a fever and was tugging on his ear. After telling Butler that the baby needed medical attention, the neighbor called 911. Butler said that she stopped giving her baby his medicine because she accidentally spilled it, reports NBC affiliate, WYFF.

A police officer accompanied the baby to the emergency room and when the nurses removed his diaper several maggots fell out, reports CBS.Police subsequently checked Butler’s apartment, discovering baby essentials such as food and formula amidst extreme filth.

According to WYFF, the baby boy’s blood and urine also tested positive for exposure to marijuana.

Butler is charged with unlawful neglect of a child, reports CBS, and is currently out on…

A Brooklyn judge today slapped a self-proclaimed expert in “pimpology” with a 21 years-to-life sentence after the flesh-peddler tearfully apologized for robbing a pair of his prostitutes and knocking around one of them.

“You referred to it as The Game, you treated it as a game,” Justice Wayne Ozzi scolded the pimp, Anthony McCord. “I’d like to say at this time, the game is over.”

McCord, 30, turned on the waterworks before being sentenced on burglary and robbery convictions, with tears spilling down his cheeks as he tried to disavow his life of crime.

“I was a failure as a pimp,” McCord said. “I was a much better car salesman, I was a much better telemarketer, I was much better when I was selling mortgages by phone. I really wasn’t very good at it.

“A lot of it was exaggerated.”

McCord’s sob story was in marked contrast to his boastful performance last year at trial, when he claimed his actions toward the working girls during the March 2010 incident were in line with “the code of conduct of pimps and hos.”

He even offered himself up as an expert on pimping – a request promptly swatted away by Ozzi.

Jurors cleared McCord of raping one of his hookers, but convicted him of burglarizing the Brooklyn hotel where the two women were waiting on johns, and of robbing them.

“They’re not entitled to be treated in that manner, regardless of whatever they do to earn money,” said Ozzi, noting McCord had treated the women like the cars and cell phones he once sold.

The pimp had also crowed about his membership in a “quiet society of pimps” and of outfitting his his two-bedroom pimp pad with stripper poles.

“He wants you to think he’s the world’s greatest pimp,” said his defense lawyer, David Walensky. “He…

Saskia David, the mother of Samier Bush, the toddler who was videotaped being put into a commercial washing machine, told the Today Show she would press charges against the babysitter who was responsible for him at the time. "I just want to tell Sandra," David told Ann Curry, "This is not over because everybody said on the news that I wasn't pressing charges, and I am."

Related: Man Who Put Toddler in Machine Not Boy's Dad

The incident occurred on May 11, but was not widely reported until a surveillance video of the child being loaded into the machine went viral on the Internet earlier this week. The machine automatically locked and began to cycle but was disabled by a swift thinking employee of the laundromat. Initially, the people in the video were thought to be Samier's parents, but yesterday, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office identified them as a babysitter and her male friend.

Related: Man Puts Toddler in Machine and Turns it on

The mother explained that she only learned of the incident on Tuesday night at about midnight when she saw the video on the local news. "I was, like, I know that ain't my child, oh, oh my god…I didn't know until the next morning until the police came knocking on my door." David says Sandra, the babysitter, had told her he had fallen down two stairs. The boy still has a visible mark on his forehead and mom claims he needs more medical tests.

Although the prosecutor's office says they are not filing charges because there was no criminal intent, David asserts she wants the people in the video  "to be punished and…

The music industry wants LimeWire to pay up to $75 trillion in damages after losing a copyright infringement claim. That's right . . . $75 trillion. Manhattan federal Judge Kimba Wood has labeled this request "absurd."

You're telling me. To put that number into perspective (I bet a lot of you didn't even know "trillion" was a real number), the…

Ever wonder why you see and hear the same 20 artists on the rotation on radio & television? No, it's not because people are calling the radio stations requesting the songs incessantly.  The answer: media-consolidation. 90% of the media is controlled by only 6 companies: GE, Newscorp, Disney, Viacom & Time Warner. Compare that to 1983 when media was owned by 50 companies.  According to FreePress.com, "media consolidation means less diversity in programming and ownership, fewer voices and viewpoints, less coverage of local issues that matter to communities and less of the unbiased, independent and critical journalism we need to prevent abuses of power." Media-consolidation has affected the balance and diversity of today's music, which is especially evident when it comes to hip hop. 

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ATLANTA (AP) — R&B singer Usher Raymond is locked in a legal battle with his ex-wife arising from a custody fight over their two sons.

The 33-year-old testified in court on Tuesday that Tameka Foster Raymond spit at and tried to fight his girlfriend during one visit. He alleged that his ex-wife hit him during the dispute, but that he didn't press charges because "I didn't want the boys to know that their father put their mother in jail."

Tameka Raymond's attorney claims that Usher provoked her client and that his account is exaggerated.

The two were married in 2007 and divorced two years later. Tameka Raymond has since fought for full custody of their two sons while Usher Raymond wants more visitation rights. Hip-hop artist Usher Raymond, left, stands in court during a brief recess in a legal battle with his ex-wife Tameka Foster Raymond, right, in a custody fight involving their two sons Tuesday, May 22, 2012, in Atlanta. The 33-year-old singer testified in court on Tuesday that Foster Raymond spit at and tried to fight his girlfriend during one nasty visit. He said his ex-wife hit him during the dispute, but that he didn't press charges because "I didn't want the boys to know that their father put their mother in jail." The two were married in 2007 and divorced two years later. (AP Photo/David Goldman)…

One week after William Balfour was convicted of killing singer and actress Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew, police have released footage from their Oct. 24, 2008 interrogation of Balfour.

Four hours after police found the bodies of Darnell Donerson, 57, and Jason Hudson, 29, in the Hudson family's three-story Englewood home, Balfour's 7-year-old stepson with estranged wife Julia Hudson was still missing, and police brought Balfour in for questioning, according to CBS Chicago.

In the video, police explain that what they're "interested in is this kid, where is this kid," to which Balfour replies that he doesn't know where Julian King is. Balfour also contests police statements that witnesses saw him with a gun on the day of the murders.

Two and a half days after the interrogation, Julian's body was found in Jason Hudson's SUV, which had been abandoned on the West Side.

After three days of deliberation, the jury unanimously convicted 31-year-old Balfour of all three murders after 11 days of testimony that included 83 witnesses. Balfour is facing a life prison sentence, though public defender Amy Thompson said she would appeal the verdict.

Balfour's girlfriend Shonta Cathey testified that Balfour had…