MUSKEGON, Michigan — Authorities say a Fruitport Township couple has been abusing their baby since he was born. The 5-month-old boy was taken to Helen DeVos Hildren’s Hospital with “life-threatening” head and spinal injuries, Muskegon County Assistant Prosecutor Tim Maat confirmed. Father Kevin Bastian, 25, was charged with felony first-degree child abuse. The baby’s mother Randee Bastian, 27, is accused of felony second-degree child abuse and misdemeanor lying to police.

Maddie Yates, a 16-year-old high school student from Louisiana, died by suicide on Monday night just moments after posting a YouTube video explaining her decision. The video, titled “Important”, was viewed over 10,000 times before YouTube took it down on Tuesday. In a transcript of the video published by BuzzFeed, Yates said she had been dealing with depression and anxiety for years.

Officers have launched a massive search – stretching from Minnesota to Washington – for a minister who allegedly raped underage girls for nearly a decade after claiming it was God’s word. Victor A. Barnard, 52, is on the run after authorities in Pine County, Minnesota announced he faces 59 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving two former members of his sect – although he could face more if other alleged victims come forward.

A premature baby born Friday night in a motel bathtub after his mother said she went on a crack cocaine binge remains in critical condition on a ventilator at UF Heatlh Shands Hospital in Gainesville. The Florida Department of Children and Families has taken custody of the baby and his 11-month-old brother, DCF spokeswoman Kristi Gray said. The baby’s brother has been placed in foster care.

A Fayetteville man was arrested Wednesday after police say he raped a two-year-old girl and recorded it on a cell phone. Scott Sholds, 31, was arrested on suspicion of distributing, possession and viewing child pornography, computer exploitation of a child and felony rape or sexual intercourse. He remained Wednesday in the Washington County Detention Center on $100,000 bond, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

WORCESTER – All Massachusetts authorities could say for sure is that they found the lifeless body of a small boy, apparently cast off the side of a highway. An autopsy should reveal if the child is Jeremiah Oliver, the Fitchburg 5-year-old missing for months before police learned of his disappearance and began looking for him. Jeremiah’s case has led to criminal charges against his mother and her boyfriend and calls for changes within the state’s child welfare agency. Three state workers have been fired.

Police in Argentina have rescued a 15-year-old girl from a garage where she had allegedly been locked up with a monkey and a dog from the age of three. The teenager, who was said to have been fed the same as the animals by her captors, weighed just 3st 1lb when she was found. Last night the unnamed youngster was in intensive care in hospital in Buenos Aires. Her carers, who were trying to adopt her, were being held in jail.

Over the last five years, more than 100 New York City school employees, including teachers, have engaged in racy extracurricular activities — sexual or ‘inappropriate’ relationships with students — over the last five years. The shocking statistics comes from Richard Condon, the special commissioner of investigation for the New York City Department of Education, who has looked into more than 593 complaints about illicit teacher-student relationships, the New York Post reported. Of that number, 104 cases were confirmed as relationships of either a sexual or otherwise inappropriate nature.

A kidnapped 14-year-old Texas girl with Down syndrome was found safe Wednesday after her alleged abductor taunted her parents to “come get me.” Elizabeth Rex of Magnolia, Texas, went missing Monday after she went outside to check the mail. Her parents said 51-year-old Randy Johnson is the man who took their daughter, according to My Fox Houston.

PLEASANT GROVE, Utah – Multiple sources are reporting a story that may come as a shock to many. A woman has been arrested for allegedly killing six children she gave birth to, according to police. According to Fox 13 News, 39-year-old Megan Huntsman was arrested Saturday after seven bodies of her infants were found dead. Police believe Huntsman killed these children over a 10-year period.

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean police charged a man on Tuesday for the murder of his 2-year-old son after he confessed to suffocating the child so he could leave the house to go back to playing games at an Internet cafe. On Sunday, police in the city of Taegu arrested the 22-year-old, identified only by his surname, Chung, after finding the body of his child in a suitcase wrapped in a trash bag near his home. Chung had earlier reported the boy missing.

Inkster, Michigan – Video shows a 13-year-old girl under attack — first by one girl but others quickly joined. The Inkster middle school student was repeatedly slapped, punched and kicked. No one tried to break it up or help her. “I started crying when I saw (the video),” said the victim’s mother, Lasean Johnson. “She said, ‘They jumped me, they jumped me,’ and she spit out blood in the hallway.”

Maiduguri (Nigeria) – Heavily armed Boko Haram Islamists kidnapped more than 100 girls from a school in northeast Nigeria, sparking a search by soldiers to track down the attackers, a security source and witnesses said Tuesday. The unprecedented mass abduction in Borno state came hours after a bomb blast ripped through a crowded bus station on the outskirts of Abuja, killing 75 people, the deadliest attack ever in Nigeria’s capital.

Cobb Superior Court Judge Reuben M. Green ordered a defendant to serve two consecutive life sentences plus 20 years after a jury reached a guilty verdict on charges of rape, sodomy and child molestation, Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds announced. The alleged victims were two young girls, ages 5 and 8, the daughters of a woman with whom the defendant had a “romantic relationship,” the DA’s announcement said. The trial started Monday and the jury took less than two hours on Thursday to convict George Henry Lawton, 27, of Jacksonville, Fla., on all 11 counts in the indictment. Lawton was found guilty of rape, four counts of aggravated sodomy, four counts of aggravated child molestation, and two counts of child molestation.