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grrrly news 9/21

September 21, 2003 09:43 PM posted by lisa : track it (0)

UK government to open an e-file on every child in England
THE UK GOVERNMENT has announced plans to keep an electronic file on every child in England in a range of new child protection measures announced by prime minister Tony Bliar.
The children's files together with their unique e-number will be managed by local authorities in a "local information hub". The file will contain the name, address and date of birth of each child, together with the name of the school attended and whether the child is known to such agencies as the police, social services or educational welfare. Where multiple agencies are involved the file will denote which one profesional will have overall reponsibilty.

Boston Archdiocese Agrees to $85M Sex Abuse Settlement
The Boston Archdiocese (search) agreed Tuesday to pay $85 million to 552 people who claim sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests devastated their lives, giving victims long-awaited recognition of their pain and the U.S. church a chance to move forward from its worst scandal ever.

First cloned human embryo is ready to implant in surrogate mother, scientist claims
An American scientist claims to have made the world's first cloned human embryo and says he will implant it in a surrogate mother later this year.
Dr Panyiotis Zavos, a fertility specialist at the University of Kentucky, also said he had created hybrid embryos by putting human DNA into "emptied" cows' eggs. He insisted that this was not in poor taste but was done as a scientific model for future human cloning efforts

Male schools rise again
Disgusted by what they see as the extinction of the all-male Southern military college, some graduates want to build one of their own, based on the way The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute used to be.
That is, they say, before those schools started admitting women, before they stopped saying mealtime prayers, and before the winds of political correctness swept aside many of the reminders of the Confederacy.

Students get sex-ed
without parents OK
The California state Assembly passed a controversial bill yesterday allowing public schools to teach and survey students on sexual topics without written parental permission.
The legislation permits parents to sign a form at the beginning of the year to "opt out" of any sessions to which they object. But Republican opponents charge the bill is a ploy by Democrats to erode the rights of parents, who should be asked for permission to "opt in" as the current law stipulates.

Fresh 'honour killing' in Jordan
Three brothers hacked their two sisters to death in Jordan in an "honour killing", one day after parliament rejected tougher sentences for such crime, officials are quoted as saying

Barbie Deemed Threat to Saudi Morality
Saudi Arabia's religious police have declared Barbie dolls a threat to morality, complaining that the revealing clothes of the "Jewish" toy — already banned in the kingdom — are offensive to Islam.
The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, as the religious police are officially known, lists the dolls on a section of its Web site devoted to items deemed offensive to the conservative Saudi interpretation of Islam

Missouri House overrides Holden's vetoes of abortion, gun bills
The Missouri House today overrode Gov. Bob Holden's vetoes of bills that would legalize concealed weapons and mandate a 24-hour waiting period for a woman to have an abortion. The action sets up a showdown on both bills in the Senate.

GELDOF'S PLEA FOR FATHERS
Bob Geldof has made an impassioned plea for fathers to be given equal access to their children when a marriage breaks down.
The rock star and businessman said he had been "unfairly" treated by the judicial system when he separated from his TV presenter wife Paula Yates

India confronts foetal sex checks
The Indian authorities have been ordered to enforce laws designed to stop the abortion of female foetuses.
The Supreme Court ruled that clinics must be punished for using womb scans to determine the sex of a foetus

Saudi Clerics Hit More Rights for Women
Prominent Saudi clerics and academics warned Wednesday against calls for equality and increased rights for women, saying such efforts aim to make Muslim women more like "infidel" Western types.
Efforts to give women greater rights are part of an anti-Islamic campaign spearheaded by the United States, said 130 Saudi sheiks and academics in a statement obtained by The Associated Press Wednesday.

Law targeting prison rape signed; diverse coalition backed measure
President Bush has signed into law legislation designed to prevent the rape of inmates in the country's prisons and jails.

The president signed the Prison Rape Elimination Act Sept. 4 after both the Senate and House of Representatives approved the measure without opposition in July.

The law establishes a National Prison Rape Reduction Commission of nine members, three to be appointed by the president and six by congressional leaders. It calls for an annual Department of Justice review of the rate and effects of prison rape. The measure also provides funds for state use in protecting inmates, including for the prosecution of prison rapists

WOMEN'S MAGAZINE NEWSSTAND SALES PLUMMET
It was a bad time for newsstand sales overall, with analysts citing a more than 5% drop for the entire industry. But the big women's magazines had significantly harder falls, and these are titles that boast monthly newsstand sales that could be measured by the ton, sell ad pages by the thousands and form backbones of companies like Hearst Magazines and Meredith Corp.

Man Must Share Pension with Ex-Wife's Husband
A German court has told a man that the pension he used to share with his ex-wife must now be shared with her widowed husband, authorities said on Thursday.
Bernhard Wanwitz, a judge at the administrative court in the western city of Mainz, said the man withdrew an appeal to keep his entire pension when the court said the widower was entitled to a share of his late wife's divorce settlement.

Barr Gets Approval for Extended Oral Contraceptive
Barr Laboratories Inc. on Friday won U.S. regulatory clearance to market the first birth control pill designed to cut the number of a woman's menstrual cycles to four a year from 13.
The company said the extended-cycle pill, called Seasonale, will be available by prescription at the end of October.
Women will take Seasonale tablets for up to 84 consecutive days, followed by a seven-day placebo interval. Most oral contraceptives currently sold in the United States are based on a regimen of 21 treatment days followed by seven days of placebo.

Gender Gap Gives Bustamente Edge in Recall Election
A significant gender gap favors California's current lieutenant governor over leading Republican challenger Arnold Schwarzenegger in the upcoming recall election in California. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, a Democrat, is ahead in a recent statewide poll by 5 points, but among women voters he is ahead of Schwarzenegger by 13 points. The recent withdrawal of Republican Peter Ueberroth did not impact the standing of the leading candidates in the California gubernatorial recall election, according to a Field Poll released today. Bustamante is also ahead of Schwarzenegger in most racial/ethnic categories, most significantly leading by 39 points among African-American voters

Man receives child support payback after 20-plus years
Money that Jonathan Sims paid for child support -- for a child that was determined through DNA testing not to be his daughter -- was finally returned to him last week by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services through the Muskingum County Child Support Enforcement Agency.
"I'm just ecstatic. It's been more than 15 years of turmoil in my life," said Sims Friday, after being informed by his attorney John Petit, that a check for $10,144.44 had been received. "Justice did prevail."

JAMAICA'S WOMEN DRUG MULES FILL UK JAILS
The penalties for drug smuggling are harsh - with average sentences between five and eight years for a first offence.

But for many of the women, the prospect of the financial reward for a successful trip makes facing the risk worth it.

"I was terrified, but I tried to hold my head up," said Simone, an inmate at Downsview prison in Southern England who is serving four-and-a-half years for attempting to smuggle cocaine into Britain.

"It was just like going to an interview - you tell yourself, well, I don't know if they'll take me because my shoes don't look good or my hair doesn't look good - but I know I can do the job so I'm going.'

Mere men
Males are increasingly portrayed in the media as either incompetent, repressed or villains. Are they the new victims of gender stereotyping? Andrew Bock reports.

Girls Against Boys
In a perfect world, or even a fairly sensible world, gender wouldn't be relevant to politics in any significant way. We are all Americans, after all, and I remain unpersuaded that men and women have different interests as citizens: We are all affected by such issues as taxes, the state of the economy, war, crime, and terrorism.
Meanwhile, in the world as it is, the National Organization for Women's Political Action Committee endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Carol Moseley Braun, the only woman in the race. Braun, whose odds of winning are roughly the same as those of an asteroid slamming into the earth and whose one term as US senator from Illinois was plagued by scandals, seems to have exactly one thing going for her: her gender.

Stop the gender politics and start studying
Most Americans take coeducation for granted. Typically, we've been educated in mixed-sex public schools and we have little awareness about single-sex schools. Our political culture reinforces such acceptance. It implies that schools reflecting the variety of society exemplify what is best about democratic societies.

America’s academic elite lead in racism, intolerance
Many of America's colleges and universities have become the modern leaders of racism and intolerance. Recently, we were treated to information about racism at the University of Michigan, where its academic elite gave students 20 extra points toward admission based solely on race.

The U.S. Supreme Court found this explicit racism unconstitutional but did allow continuance of a more hidden form, where universities can consider race as "a plus" in admission decisions. But this is the tip of the iceberg

Just say 'no' to 'modern sex-ed'
We didn't mean to turn our son into The Outcast.
Last year, he was the only ninth-grader in his school whose parents opted him out of the county sex-education classes. We opted out our two other children also (one in middle school, the other in grammar school) and we've done so again this year for all three.

’Til death do us part
After more than five decades of marriage, Pauline Robertson is emphatic that the best years with her husband, Jack, are still to come. And he agrees, with gusto: “We’re friends, closest friends, there’s a lot of love there.”
Pauline and Jack, who both grew up in Mordialloc, met at a dance at the Malvern Town Hall in 1947. She was a 20-year-old secretary and he was 24 and working in a bank. They started going to the local cinema where, Jack confides, “if you took a girl upstairs to the dress circle you were very serious”. Within 18 months they were married.

Leave those kids alone
A green paper published by the UK government on 8 September announced, in the words of prime minister Tony Blair, 'the most far-reaching reform of child services for 30 years'

A Total Eclipse of the Son
As the light of publicity shines on female victims of domestic violence there will be others standing in the dark shadow cast by that light. Those "others" will be men and boys.

Rape May Be Most Common in Rural Areas
Sex-assault counselors say that that research showing rural women at high risk of rape--and low likelihood of reporting it--confirm their impression that conservative rural societies stifle talk about the topic

Battered Women Paint Their Pasts, Imagine a Future
Art therapy programs designed for survivors of domestic violence are springing up across the country. The programs do not intend to replace traditional counseling. Instead, participants say, they help them express their emotions in a different way

Incontinence Often Undiagnosed, Overlooked
Stress urinary incontinence--an all-to-common problem among women--is often assumed to be an inevitable part of aging. But the condition can be treated with a range of therapies, and by no means affects older women exclusively

Newspapers Execs Clueless about What Women Want
To retain and recruit female readers, a study suggests that newspapers must make a broad cultural shift. That seems unlikely, however, when editors and publishers favor gender stereotypes over data about the news coverage women want.

Women Push for Media Coverage in Southern Africa
Beauty contestant, sex worker, homemaker. Those are the only subjects for which women serve as the dominant authorities in southern African newspapers. Two groups are trying to change that and to ensure more respect for women in news coverage.

Web Opens Window on Eating Disorders
Young women looking on the Internet for help with their eating disorders are instead finding a proliferation of sites that encourage their unhealthy habits. Some researchers, however, say the sites offer a therapeutic "window" on a baffling disease.

New York Times Trashes NOW's Endorsement of Braun
This week the New York Times described the National Organization for Women's endorsement of Carol Moseley Braun for president as "silly."
In an editorial that ran on September 14, the Times said that NOW's decision to endorse the former senator and ambassador is a "peculiar way to enhance the clout of women in politics."
The paper agrees that Braun has a "strong record on women's rights issues" and yet calls her presidential bid a "vanity affair" based on a personal quest to return to the limelight.

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