Manhattan, New York – It was just before 6:00 pm when the MTA BX9 bus came to a stop at Cambreleng Avenue where 17-year-old Steangeli Medina got on board with his pet Chihuahua.

The student at Richard R Green High School in Manhattan held the pooch in his arms, but the bus driver denied her access because according to MTA rules, pets cannot travel on board if they were not caged. According to the bus driver, Marlene Bien-Aime, Medina got angry and responded: “I’m gonna hit you”.

Bien turned away and directed her attention to the front of the bus when Medina sucker-punched her with blows to her eyes and head.

Other passengers were successful in parting the two but Medina was determined. Bien-Aime spent the night in the St Barnabas Hospital where she was treated for a broken nose, a badly swollen black eye and other neck and head injuries.

Medina was booked on charges of assault, menacing and harassment later that night. Prosecutors are now considering felony assault charges against her.

TEENS charged for hate crime

Queens, New York – Authorities say six New York City TEENagers have been charged with murder as a hate crime in the beating and stomping of an 18-year-old perceived to be gay.

Anthony Collao of Bethpage on Long Island was attacked while leaving a birthday party in Woodhaven, Queens.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that the suspects made “homophobic remarks” and scrawled on a wall with red markers after crashing the party.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said the defendants were each charged in a 21-count indictment that includes second-degree murder as a hate crime. Brown said the charges were upgraded after new evidence from witnesses was gathered.

The defendants could face up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

TEEN loses texting thumbs

A 17-year-old’s Botox treatment to help cure her excessively sweaty hands seems to fix one problem, but also caused another by immobilising her texting thumbs.

The girl sought help after trying all the usual tricks to cure her extra-sweaty palms, a condition known as palmar hyperhidrosis, which affects about eight-million people.

Over a three-month period, she experimented with products such as Dryol, a high-powered antiperspirant as well as a super-saturated concentration of aluminium chloride, but these methods only proved futile.

Then she turned to Botox, the popular wrinkle-relaxing drug, which also has been approved to stop excessive sweating in places like the armpits, hands and feet. The treatment called for 30 injections in her palm and three in each finger, an uncomfortable but not excruciating ordeal but within a week, she reported “dramatic improvement”.

The downside, however, came later, when the girl discovered her thumbs didn’t work quite right, a condition doctors termed “transitory texting impairment.”

Still, the girl may be back for more. Although that problem lasted for six weeks, her palms stayed sweat-free for five months.

— Monique Clarke