In an exclusive interview with the Guardian's Film&Music, Prince said: "It's fun being in Islamic countries, to know there's only one religion. There's order. You wear a burqa. There's no choice. People are happy with that." When asked about the fate of those unhappy with having no choice, he replied: "There are people who are unhappy with everything. There's a dark side to everything."
Read the full story at the Guardian
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Anxiety is everywhere
New research showing that the brains of city dwellers operate differently from the brains of those living in rural areas – and that this possibly explains an increase in urban mental health problems – will come as no surprise to most people. According to the study by the University of Heidelberg and McGill University, the two regions of the brain governing emotion and anxiety show signs of over-activity for city dwellers.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
The world must support its widows
There are 245 million widows in the world, yet their problems are often ignored. Today, on the first International Widows Day, I hope to break the silence of their suffering in order to support them to play an active role in building their families and their communities.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
Keeping children at school until 8pm is only good for pushy parents
Gove this week announced that free schools will be able to lengthen not just term times, but the length of the school day, too.
Free schools will be free to open 51 weeks a year, until 7pm or even 8pm – six days a week. The hours are not dissimilar to those once worked by children in the Victorian mills. It is natural for proponents to believe this will give their offspring, and our future generation, the edge – it will turn them into academic powerhouses, reeling off ancient Greek and Latin in no time at all. It would be a great idea if it wasn't such nonsense.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Free schools will be free to open 51 weeks a year, until 7pm or even 8pm – six days a week. The hours are not dissimilar to those once worked by children in the Victorian mills. It is natural for proponents to believe this will give their offspring, and our future generation, the edge – it will turn them into academic powerhouses, reeling off ancient Greek and Latin in no time at all. It would be a great idea if it wasn't such nonsense.
Read the full story at the Guardian
John Galliano: in vino veritas?
One way to test the validity of John Galliano's defence against the charges of public antisemitism he's facing in France would be to give him a whopping dose of one the few drugs he seems not to have been on last year – sodium amytal (aka "truth serum"). The three judges could ask the wayward fashion designer what his feelings were about Jews, gas chambers and genocide. Perhaps that inner John, whom his lawyer describes as "a tolerant man, without hostility to religion", would emerge to confound the prosecutor. Case closed.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
If you want big society, you need big religion
Robert Putnam, Harvard professor of public policy, has been in London, channelling the wisdom of social capital at No 10, as well as talking at St Martins-in-the-Fields on Monday evening. That venue is the big clue to his latest findings. It could be summarised thus: if you want big society, you need big religion.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
Barack Obama's real record on LGBT rights
On Thursday evening, President Obama will headline the annual LGBT Leadership Council Gala in New York City, timed to coincide with Gay Pride. With tickets starting at $1,250 per plate and going up to $38,500, the event is key to shoring up Obama's 2012 war chest. It's also central to convincing the press and public that the LGBT community loves Obama, and he has our vote sewn up.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
Sex with my wife is virtually non-existent. Should I tell her I'm seeing an escort?
My wife finds penetrative sex difficult. Since her hysterectomy she's been unable to come properly. After excellent sex for three years, successive health and job pressures have meant it's become virtually non-existent.
I have to be so gentle, she gets thrush and is turned off. We share a bed and it's so frustrating. I've tried not to burden her with my needs because she's disabled and has a demanding job. I have a high sex drive and have been seeing escorts. One is phenomenally responsive. It gets better each time with this lady and she's encouraged me to try Viagra to overcome some impotence. The last two occasions have been so good for my confidence. I now wonder if I should tell my wife about my encounters? I do need satisfying, and it's becoming impossible not living with the person I make love to.
Read Pamela Stephenson's answer at the Guardian
I have to be so gentle, she gets thrush and is turned off. We share a bed and it's so frustrating. I've tried not to burden her with my needs because she's disabled and has a demanding job. I have a high sex drive and have been seeing escorts. One is phenomenally responsive. It gets better each time with this lady and she's encouraged me to try Viagra to overcome some impotence. The last two occasions have been so good for my confidence. I now wonder if I should tell my wife about my encounters? I do need satisfying, and it's becoming impossible not living with the person I make love to.
Read Pamela Stephenson's answer at the Guardian
Venus Williams serves a fashion ace
There are some certainties about Wimbledon: that it will rain, that the TV cameras will seek out Cliff Richard and that one or other of the Williams sisters will cause a bit of fashion fuss. On opening day Venus obliged tradition and appeared on Centre Court wearing a mini lace jumpsuit. The message was louder than her trademark grunt: her bid for the championships is still in its early stages, but she's already aced the style victory. Again.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
The woman at the helm in the US Navy
Half a dozen F-18 fast jets streak across the sky, while below, others are flung off the top of the sprawling flight deck by steam catapult.
And In the midst of this display of naval power sits Rear Admiral Nora Tyson, the first woman to command a US carrier strike group. Adm Tyson is in charge of 75 jets, helicopters and other aircraft – together worth $45bn – plus a cluster of cruisers and destroyers, and nearly 10,000 men and women.
Read the full story at the Guardian
And In the midst of this display of naval power sits Rear Admiral Nora Tyson, the first woman to command a US carrier strike group. Adm Tyson is in charge of 75 jets, helicopters and other aircraft – together worth $45bn – plus a cluster of cruisers and destroyers, and nearly 10,000 men and women.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Yulia Tymoshenko says corruption trial aim is to destroy Ukraine opposition
Her distinctive circular braid has been replaced by a loose furl of blond hair, but the unwavering gaze and the stinging rhetoric are those of old.
Seven years since she led Ukraine's orange revolution, Yulia Tymoshenko is back at centre stage as she prepares to stand as the accused in what she calls a show trial orchestrated by President Viktor Yanukovich, her sworn political foe.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Seven years since she led Ukraine's orange revolution, Yulia Tymoshenko is back at centre stage as she prepares to stand as the accused in what she calls a show trial orchestrated by President Viktor Yanukovich, her sworn political foe.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Muslim Tory minister says Pakistan's treatment of women fails Islam
Pakistan is failing to live up to one of the tenets of Islam which guarantees rights to all women, according to Sayeeda Warsi, the Conservative party co-chairman and minister without portfolio, who is the first Muslim to sit as a full member of the cabinet.
In a sign of Britain's impatience with Pakistan, Lady Warsi said the world's first Islamic republic is denying rights granted 1,400 years ago in the Qur'an.
Read the full story at the Guardian
In a sign of Britain's impatience with Pakistan, Lady Warsi said the world's first Islamic republic is denying rights granted 1,400 years ago in the Qur'an.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Don’t forget D.C.’s homeless women in the HIV/AIDS fight
Figures released last week by the D.C. Department of Health show that the District has made a dent in reducing new cases of HIV/AIDS. However, there is still an alarming reality that isn’t being addressed as publicly: Our data, based on the self-reported HIV status of our clients, suggest that homeless women in this region are nearly 150 percent more likely to suffer from the disease than the general population. There are solutions for the underlying issues that cause this disparity — issues including domestic violence, trauma and substance abuse — and they’re being addressed by some local nonprofits.
Read the full story at the Washington Post
Read the full story at the Washington Post
The income gap: an American nightmare
The most convincing evidence of the worsening of U.S. income distribution comes from the historical evolution of the minimum wage, the main source of earning for the poorest of the poor.
The minimum wage in 1970 was $1.60 per hour. This was increased in steps to $7.25 today. Adjusted for the inflation rate, the minimum wage in real terms in 2010 was just four-fifths of the level in 1970, down 20 percent. Over the same period, U.S. real gross domestic product increased three-fold and also doubled in per capita terms.
Read the full story at the Washington Post
The minimum wage in 1970 was $1.60 per hour. This was increased in steps to $7.25 today. Adjusted for the inflation rate, the minimum wage in real terms in 2010 was just four-fifths of the level in 1970, down 20 percent. Over the same period, U.S. real gross domestic product increased three-fold and also doubled in per capita terms.
Read the full story at the Washington Post
Wal-Mart to help fund D.C. summer youth programs
Wal-Mart and its charitable foundation are giving $25 million to support summer programs for youths across the country, including $665,000 in grants for school nutrition, jobs and learning programs in the District.
Read the full story at the Washington Post
Read the full story at the Washington Post
D.C. Jesuit removed from ministry for allegedly touching child improperly
A D.C. Jesuit who has served as a national leader on spiritual music and African American worship has been permanently removed from ministry after an investigator concluded that he improperly touched a child in the 1980s.
Read the full story at the Washington Post
Read the full story at the Washington Post
Jury convicts self-help author of 3 counts of negligent homicide in Arizona sweat lodge deaths
CAMP VERDE, Ariz. — A self-help guru was found guilty of three counts of negligent homicide Wednesday in a case that shined a spotlight on a deadly Arizona sweat lodge ceremony that ended in chaos, with participants vomiting, shaking and being dragged outside.
Jurors reached their verdict with remarkable swiftness: They took less than 10 hours to convict James Arthur Ray following a four-month trial that included hundreds of exhibits and countless hours of testimony.
Read the full story at the Washington Post
Jurors reached their verdict with remarkable swiftness: They took less than 10 hours to convict James Arthur Ray following a four-month trial that included hundreds of exhibits and countless hours of testimony.
Read the full story at the Washington Post
Breast implants reasonably safe, FDA says
Silicone breast implants appear to be relatively safe for most women, although recipients often have them removed because of leaks, infections and other problems, federal health officials said Wednesday.
A preliminary analysis of data being collected by two companies that won approval for silicone gel-filled implants in 2006 and other data found no evidence that the implants cause breast cancer, reproductive problems, rheumatoid arthritis or other major health problems, the Food and Drug Administration said.
Read the full story at the Washington Post
A preliminary analysis of data being collected by two companies that won approval for silicone gel-filled implants in 2006 and other data found no evidence that the implants cause breast cancer, reproductive problems, rheumatoid arthritis or other major health problems, the Food and Drug Administration said.
Read the full story at the Washington Post
A religious exemption for gay marriage?
Discussion
A bill legalizing same-sex marriage for couples in New York state is at a standstill over the issue of exemptions for religious organizations and individuals. The reach of these religious protections is wide-ranging -from whether Catholic adoption agencies may reject same-sex couples, to the right of religious caterers to refuse services for gay weddings. In New York’s Marriage Equality Act, should there be exemptions for religion? What should happen when equal rights for gay citizens and the right to religious free exercise clash?
Read all the articles at the Washington Post
A bill legalizing same-sex marriage for couples in New York state is at a standstill over the issue of exemptions for religious organizations and individuals. The reach of these religious protections is wide-ranging -from whether Catholic adoption agencies may reject same-sex couples, to the right of religious caterers to refuse services for gay weddings. In New York’s Marriage Equality Act, should there be exemptions for religion? What should happen when equal rights for gay citizens and the right to religious free exercise clash?
Read all the articles at the Washington Post
‘Good Enough’ parenting or perfect parenting
Lori Gottlieb has just started a schoolyard brawl.
With an article in the Atlantic that hit newsstands this week, the writer, therapist and mother has lassoed an increasingly common complaint among parents, grandparents, teachers and professors: modern parents are ruining their children.
Gottlieb, who previously wrote “Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough” (Dutton, 2010) quotes other therapists, authors and a few teachers about how they’ve been witnessing a sea change among kids and teenagers. They told her that the younger generation is plagued with anxiety and paper-thin egos. The culprits, they say, are not the bad parents, but the best parents.
Read the full story in the Washington Post
With an article in the Atlantic that hit newsstands this week, the writer, therapist and mother has lassoed an increasingly common complaint among parents, grandparents, teachers and professors: modern parents are ruining their children.
Gottlieb, who previously wrote “Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough” (Dutton, 2010) quotes other therapists, authors and a few teachers about how they’ve been witnessing a sea change among kids and teenagers. They told her that the younger generation is plagued with anxiety and paper-thin egos. The culprits, they say, are not the bad parents, but the best parents.
Read the full story in the Washington Post
How important is sex to a marriage?
Many things get lost in the long haul of relationships, among them inhibitions, senses of humour, socks — and, in many cases, libido.
It is a lucky and unusual couple who, decades into a marriage, still feel the same passion for each other that ignited their early relationship.
Far more common is the story of the once-happy sex life that has waned as the years passed — that initial physical bond becoming fractured in the maelstrom of raising children, earning a living, running a house and growing older.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
It is a lucky and unusual couple who, decades into a marriage, still feel the same passion for each other that ignited their early relationship.
Far more common is the story of the once-happy sex life that has waned as the years passed — that initial physical bond becoming fractured in the maelstrom of raising children, earning a living, running a house and growing older.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
'Red wine could have led to Jimi Hendrix's death', says close friend Meic Stevens
The doctor who attempted to save Jimi Hendrix on the night that the guitarist died said it was 'plausible' he was murdered because he 'drowned in red wine'.
But the iconic musician may have choked and died because he did not know how to drink the substance, close friend Meic Stevens has revealed.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
But the iconic musician may have choked and died because he did not know how to drink the substance, close friend Meic Stevens has revealed.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Single mothers hardest hit by cuts - Fawcett Society
Single mothers will be hardest hit by the government's programme of benefit cuts and tax rises, according to campaign group the Fawcett Society.
It estimates they will lose an average 8.5% of their income after tax by 2015.
Read the full story at the BBC
It estimates they will lose an average 8.5% of their income after tax by 2015.
Read the full story at the BBC
Women's gaydar (for men) improves when ovulating
Trick-cyclists in Canada have found that women become much better at telling whether a man is gay – based merely on looking at a photo of his face – when they are ovulating and fertile. In the course of determining this, the psychology profs revealed that they possess highly effective scientifically-verified texts, the mere reading of which sends nubile young sorority girls into a mating frenzy.
Read the full story at the Register
Read the full story at the Register
British former lapdancer, her lover and the ex who found them in bed are all jailed in Dubai for having sex outside marriage
A British former lapdancer, her banker lover and his jealous Brazilian model ex-girlfriend who caught them in bed have all been jailed in Dubai for having sex outside marriage.
Danielle Spencer, 31, was naked with Toby Carroll, 33, when furious Priscilla Gomez, 25, stormed into his flat, threatening them with a knife and smashing his possessions.
Police called to the scene decided that all three in the love triangle were in breach of the Arab emirate's strict morality laws and arrested them.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Danielle Spencer, 31, was naked with Toby Carroll, 33, when furious Priscilla Gomez, 25, stormed into his flat, threatening them with a knife and smashing his possessions.
Police called to the scene decided that all three in the love triangle were in breach of the Arab emirate's strict morality laws and arrested them.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Scotland tops world cocaine use
Scotland has again been placed at the top of the world league for cocaine consumption.
Figures published by the United Nations show that 3.9% of Scottish residents aged between 16 and 64 used the drug in the past year.
Read the full story at the BBC
Figures published by the United Nations show that 3.9% of Scottish residents aged between 16 and 64 used the drug in the past year.
Read the full story at the BBC
Toddler's solo bus trip from Montgomery to Shrewsbury
A toddler has managed to travel alone 28 miles (45km) from Powys to Shropshire after getting on a bus.
The two-year-old boy got on with other passengers at Montgomery on Monday morning and was only noticed when the bus reached its destination at Shrewsbury.
Read the full story at the BBC
The two-year-old boy got on with other passengers at Montgomery on Monday morning and was only noticed when the bus reached its destination at Shrewsbury.
Read the full story at the BBC
Nottingham pensioner fined £35 for 'upside down' badge
A disabled pensioner has been fined for displaying his blue badge upside down at a Nottinghamshire council car park.
Peter Knott, 76, who suffers from severe arthritis, was upset after he was fined £35 in West Bridgford.
Read the full story at the BBC
Peter Knott, 76, who suffers from severe arthritis, was upset after he was fined £35 in West Bridgford.
Read the full story at the BBC
Ai Weiwei 'cannot leave Beijing without permission'
China's foreign ministry has said that artist Ai Weiwei cannot leave Beijing without permission, a day after he was freed from police detention.
Mr Ai - a vocal government critic - was bailed after the Chinese authorities said he had confessed to tax evasion. Mr Ai said he was unable to comment.
Read the full story at the BBC
Mr Ai - a vocal government critic - was bailed after the Chinese authorities said he had confessed to tax evasion. Mr Ai said he was unable to comment.
Read the full story at the BBC
Buju Banton sentenced to 10 years in prison
Grammy-award-winning star Buju Banton has been sentenced to 10 years in jail in the US for his role in setting up a cocaine deal in 2009.
The singer, whose real name is Mark Myrie, was told at Tampa federal court that he must serve five years' probation following prison.
Read the full story on the BBC
The singer, whose real name is Mark Myrie, was told at Tampa federal court that he must serve five years' probation following prison.
Read the full story on the BBC
MPs defy ministers and back ban on wild circus animals
MPs have defied the government and backed a ban on wild animals being used in circuses in England after a heated debate in Parliament.
Tory MP Mark Pritchard's motion was approved without a formal vote.
Read the full story at the BBC
Tory MP Mark Pritchard's motion was approved without a formal vote.
Read the full story at the BBC
George Michael to stage HIV charity concert
George Michael is to stage a special concert for Sir Elton John's Aids foundation.
The gig at London's Royal Opera House will benefit the charity's newly created Elizabeth Taylor Memorial Fund.
Michael said he "really wanted to honour the inspiring efforts" made by the actress in raising awareness of the disease.
Read the full story at the BBC
The gig at London's Royal Opera House will benefit the charity's newly created Elizabeth Taylor Memorial Fund.
Michael said he "really wanted to honour the inspiring efforts" made by the actress in raising awareness of the disease.
Read the full story at the BBC
How Catherine Deneuve became a trophy wife
With more than 100 films to her name, screen icon Catherine Deneuve plays against type as a 1970s housewife in French sex comedy Potiche.
So often regarded as the embodiment of cinematic elegance, it is something of a surprise when Catherine Deneuve appears at the start of her latest film jogging in red tracksuit with her hair in curlers.
Read the full story at the BBC
So often regarded as the embodiment of cinematic elegance, it is something of a surprise when Catherine Deneuve appears at the start of her latest film jogging in red tracksuit with her hair in curlers.
Read the full story at the BBC
Married men ‘feel unhealthier when they retire'... until their wives stop work too and are on hand to look after them
Most married men look forward to retirement, with all the gardening and games of golf it’ll bring
But a study shows that many actually feel in worse health once they stop working.
But fortunately things do improve: husbands begin to feel healthier when their wives retire too and begin looking after them more carefully, researchers from the University of Missouri discovered.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
But a study shows that many actually feel in worse health once they stop working.
But fortunately things do improve: husbands begin to feel healthier when their wives retire too and begin looking after them more carefully, researchers from the University of Missouri discovered.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Now that really is a spin cycle! University student invents washing machine that can be powered by pedalling
For those of us used to our washing machines, this might not seem like the easiest way of getting the laundry done.
But student Richard Hewitt is hoping that to people in developing countries his pedal-powered washing machine will be a godsend.
The 21-year-old, who has just completed a degree in product design at Sheffield Hallam University, has come up with the 'Spincycle' a device which washes and dries clothes by using pedal power.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
But student Richard Hewitt is hoping that to people in developing countries his pedal-powered washing machine will be a godsend.
The 21-year-old, who has just completed a degree in product design at Sheffield Hallam University, has come up with the 'Spincycle' a device which washes and dries clothes by using pedal power.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Pilot broadcasts slur-filled rant about gay flight attendants over air-traffic control frequency
A pilot was suspended after accidentally broadcasting a slur-filled rant about flight attendants over an air-traffic control frequency that stopped controllers from contacting other aircraft.
The foul-mouthed rant meant controllers were unable to contact other aircraft for several minutes potentially putting lives at risk.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
The foul-mouthed rant meant controllers were unable to contact other aircraft for several minutes potentially putting lives at risk.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Is this the world's smelliest man? The farm worker who has not had a wash in 37 years
It is not an achievement that can readily be savoured by his nearest and dearest.
But Kailash Singh has as good a claim as any to the accolade of world's smelliest man - after refusing to wash for more than 37 years.
Mr Singh, 65, has not bathed or cut his 6ft-long dreadlocks since 1974, shortly after he married.
Explaining his unconventional decision, Mr Singh claimed a priest guaranteed him a much-prized son and heir if he followed the advice.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
But Kailash Singh has as good a claim as any to the accolade of world's smelliest man - after refusing to wash for more than 37 years.
Mr Singh, 65, has not bathed or cut his 6ft-long dreadlocks since 1974, shortly after he married.
Explaining his unconventional decision, Mr Singh claimed a priest guaranteed him a much-prized son and heir if he followed the advice.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Autistic children could be diagnosed from the age of ONE thanks to new brain scan
Researchers studying autistic children have discovered their brain activity appears to be out of sync compared to their peers at a very early stage.
They found that language areas in the right and left sides of the brain are less synchronised in autistic toddlers.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
They found that language areas in the right and left sides of the brain are less synchronised in autistic toddlers.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Who needs clothes with a body like this? Heidi Klum poses topless for daring new Project Runway ad
Project Runway may be all about fashion, but the show's host Heidi Klum decided to forgo clothes all together in a promotional image for the new series.
The 39-year-old model and mother of four posed with a pair of scissors and a pink tie ribbon around her neck, with the words 'Make It Work' - a catchphrase of the show's co-host Tim Gunn - written on her arm.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
The 39-year-old model and mother of four posed with a pair of scissors and a pink tie ribbon around her neck, with the words 'Make It Work' - a catchphrase of the show's co-host Tim Gunn - written on her arm.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
That's a bit risqué! Keira Knightley gets spanked in sexually charged film A Dangerous Method
Risqué stills from Keira Knightley’s upcoming film have been released, showing the actress being spanked by her co-star.
Set in the early 1900s, 26-year-old star is seen dressed in a white corseted dress as she is belted by actor Michael Fassbender, who plays her psychiatrist in the sexually-charged project.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Set in the early 1900s, 26-year-old star is seen dressed in a white corseted dress as she is belted by actor Michael Fassbender, who plays her psychiatrist in the sexually-charged project.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
The moment nine-year-old girl is forced to endure agony of eyebrow waxing for child beauty pageant
A nine-year-old girl is made to have her eyebrows waxed in the name of beauty as mothers push their daughters to ever greater extremes in the competitive world of child pageants.
Chloe, nine, from Forney in Texas, can be seen screwing her face up in shock and pain as she undergoes the procedure in a professional salon in preparation for a contest.
Read the full story on the Daily Mail
Chloe, nine, from Forney in Texas, can be seen screwing her face up in shock and pain as she undergoes the procedure in a professional salon in preparation for a contest.
Read the full story on the Daily Mail
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Stressed in the City: How Urban Life May Change Your Brain
I live in New York City, and for me, there's nothing that compares to its culture, energy and convenience. I'm not alone in feeling this way — more than half of the world's population now lives in urban areas.
But I also know that when it comes to mental health, the urban lifestyle may not be such a good thing. City dwellers tend to be more stressed and have higher levels of mood disorders and psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia than those living in rural or suburban areas. And now researchers say they have uncovered certain changes in brain activity that could potentially help explain why.
Read the full story in Time magazine
But I also know that when it comes to mental health, the urban lifestyle may not be such a good thing. City dwellers tend to be more stressed and have higher levels of mood disorders and psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia than those living in rural or suburban areas. And now researchers say they have uncovered certain changes in brain activity that could potentially help explain why.
Read the full story in Time magazine
Inside the Sex-Crimes Unit Prosecuting DSK
With the indictment of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) on charges of attempted rape, the Manhattan Sex Crimes Unit is in the glare of the international spotlight. But the tabloid frenzy over this high-profile case obscures the dogged and far less glamorous work of the prosecutors and investigators of this pioneering crime unit, which investigates roughly 300 cases at any given time.
Read the full story at Time magazine
Read the full story at Time magazine
Study: Doctors May Be Confused About Cervical Cancer Screening
The U.S. has arguably the world's best medical tools available — especially when it comes to cancer screening, which has significantly reduced the mortality rates of serious killers such as breast and colorectal cancer in the last few years. But too much of a good thing can be bad, and expensive.
A government study finds that too many doctors are using the wrong test or testing the wrong women for the human papillomavirus, or HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer. The unnecessary tests are costly and may be leading to harm and anxiety in women who receive extra medical care they don't need.
Read the full story in Time magazine
A government study finds that too many doctors are using the wrong test or testing the wrong women for the human papillomavirus, or HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer. The unnecessary tests are costly and may be leading to harm and anxiety in women who receive extra medical care they don't need.
Read the full story in Time magazine
Sex and Spicy Food: Half of Women Try Folklore to Induce Labor
By the time a pregnant woman draws near her due date or breezes by it, with no sign of baby, she may get a little desperate. What to do? Many women turn to folklore.
Myriad are the well-intentioned people who promise surefire, old-wives' ways to jumpstart labor. Apparently, moms-to-be are listening: new research shows that half of women who reached 37 weeks of pregnancy tried methods like walking, having sex, eating spicy food or stimulating their nipples to induce labor.
Read the full story in Time Magazine
Myriad are the well-intentioned people who promise surefire, old-wives' ways to jumpstart labor. Apparently, moms-to-be are listening: new research shows that half of women who reached 37 weeks of pregnancy tried methods like walking, having sex, eating spicy food or stimulating their nipples to induce labor.
Read the full story in Time Magazine
Driving While Buzzed: No Amount of Alcohol Is Safe Behind the Wheel
The blood-alcohol limit in the U.S. is 0.08% — a cutoff that implies that any blood-alcohol content (BAC) south of 0.08% is safe, or at least not illegal.
But a new study published in the journal Addiction suggests that there is no such thing as a safe BAC and that driving after consuming even a small amount of alcohol — just one beer, for instance — is associated with incapacitating injury and death.
Read the full story in Time Magazine
But a new study published in the journal Addiction suggests that there is no such thing as a safe BAC and that driving after consuming even a small amount of alcohol — just one beer, for instance — is associated with incapacitating injury and death.
Read the full story in Time Magazine
30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future
Rebel, survivor, pinup, sweetheart, pit bull, rock chick, ice queen: female tennis players sure seem to get labeled a lot. And while that kind of media sizzle makes tournaments like Wimbledon a hot ticket, it doesn't begin to sum up the resilience and power of the sport's biggest stars. Find out what drives the greatest players of the past 40 years, from Billie Jean King to Li Na
Read the full article in Time magazine
Read the full article in Time magazine
UN issues first resolution condemning discrimination against gay people
The United Nations issued its first condemnation of discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgender people on Friday, in a cautiously-worded declaration hailed by supporters including the US as a historic moment.
Members of the UN human rights council narrowly voted in favour of the resolution put forward by South Africa, against strong opposition from African and Islamic countries.
Read the full story on the Guardian
Members of the UN human rights council narrowly voted in favour of the resolution put forward by South Africa, against strong opposition from African and Islamic countries.
Read the full story on the Guardian
Shaykhy Crushes: Trials in the Lives of Men of Knowledge
When I first began studying Islam and getting involved in Islamic work, one of the major motivators for me was that this field would keep me away from the fitnah of the opposite gender. For every young man and woman, one of the greatest trials we face is dealing with members of the opposite gender without falling into sin. Originally, and it was naive of me, I thought Islamic work would put me in a position in which I would not have to deal with these situations. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
There is a trend among contemporary, practicing Muslims which I find rather disturbing, this trend is what I call a “Shaykhy Crush”. I have noticed at many Islamic events, from classes to conferences, practicing Muslim women who follow the Deen in dress and Ibadah, developing crushes and falling in love with the speakers and teachers. This has led to many dangerous scenarios.
Read the full story at Muslim Matters
There is a trend among contemporary, practicing Muslims which I find rather disturbing, this trend is what I call a “Shaykhy Crush”. I have noticed at many Islamic events, from classes to conferences, practicing Muslim women who follow the Deen in dress and Ibadah, developing crushes and falling in love with the speakers and teachers. This has led to many dangerous scenarios.
Read the full story at Muslim Matters
Catholic Care's latest appeal request is refused
Alison McKenna of the charity tribunal rules that the charity has not identified any errors of law in the decision not to allow it to discriminate against same-sex adoption couples.
Read the full story at Third Sector
Read the full story at Third Sector
Nepal temple joins US lesbians in wedlock
KATHMANDU: There were no howls of outrage or attempts at disruption but only good-natured curiosity and non-stop traditional music as American psychologist Courtney Mitchell tied the knot with fellow American Sarah Welton, a lawyer by profession, in Kathmandu valley's celebrated Dakshinkali temple on Monday, making it Asia's first public lesbian wedding and an additional feather in the cap of Sunil Babu Pant, Nepal's only openly gay legislator.
Read the full story at The Times of India
Read the full story at The Times of India
Jackie Chan: Philanthropy's Hardest Working Man
Another long day is nearly over, and Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan is beat. And no wonder: The day before, he made an overnight dash to Beijing, carrying a torch in a run to promote the upcoming World University Games in Guangzhou. Landing in Hong Kong he rushes straight to a series of photo shoots, appearances and dubbing duties for Kung Fu Panda 2. Rubbing his eyes, it's clear he needs a break. But he still has one more appointment, this time with a special opponent.
Read the full story at Forbes
Read the full story at Forbes
Humans really DO have a sixth sense... that lets us detect magnetic fields (and we're not aware we have it)
It has long been known as ESP, Spider Sense, or the ability to see things before they happen.
But now scientists have proved that humans really do have a sixth sense - that lets them detect magnetic fields.
Tests have shown that mankind may have the same innate sense of Earth’s magnetic field that has long been proved to exist in animals.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
But now scientists have proved that humans really do have a sixth sense - that lets them detect magnetic fields.
Tests have shown that mankind may have the same innate sense of Earth’s magnetic field that has long been proved to exist in animals.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Council caretaker 'was juju wizard who trafficked young girls, kept them in coffins and forced them to eat hearts'
A council caretaker trafficked girls as young as 14 into Britain to work as prostitutes after they had been put under a voodoo spell, a court heard yesterday.
Anthony Harrison, 32, is alleged to have raped two girls in Britain after they had been subjected to an extraordinary African black magic ritual by a people-smuggling gang.
The terrifying ceremony was performed in Nigeria by a Juju priest to trap the girls into a life of sex slavery, it was said.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Anthony Harrison, 32, is alleged to have raped two girls in Britain after they had been subjected to an extraordinary African black magic ritual by a people-smuggling gang.
The terrifying ceremony was performed in Nigeria by a Juju priest to trap the girls into a life of sex slavery, it was said.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
TV review: Abused: Breaking the Silence; Submarine School
The element of surprise has long passed. We've got so used to Catholic priests being accused of child sex abuse that the real rarity would be a TV documentary about one who kept his hands to himself. Yet it's the very familiarity of these stories that makes them still so powerful; the recognition that child abuse isn't limited to a few isolated priests but is an endemic problem that the Catholic church has gone out of its way to cover up for the best part of 50 years.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
Is The Scheme packed with shameless stereotypes?
It is a graphic, no-holds-barred account of life on a hard-struck council estate in Kilmarnock, so it's perhaps little surprise that the Daily Mail has questioned the decision to show The Scheme, a "jaw-droppingly grotesque" fly-on-the-wall documentary series, on BBC1. (The second part aired last night.) But the moral motivation for making The Scheme has also become a hot topic in Scotland, where the series was first shown last year – partially at least; the last two episodes were pulled off air when one of the participants was charged with assault. The show became a huge hit for BBC Scotland, drawing over half a million viewers, and made cult stars of figures such as ex-heroin addict Marvin Baird (whose dog Bullet amassed more than 10,000 followers on Facebook) and teenage "competitive dancer" Kimberley Cunningham.
Read the full story on the Guardian
Read the full story on the Guardian
Locked-in syndrome: Shut out by a stroke
Tony Nicklinson is listening to the radio when I arrive. He's been hoisted into his wheelchair, and sits alone in a room overlooking his garden. Seeing me, he raises his eyebrows by way of hello. I introduce myself, ask how he is and tell him I've spent the afternoon with his lovely daughters. He nods stiffly. Then his eyes well up.
Tony had a stroke in 2005 and now suffers from locked-in syndrome: he's trapped inside his body, aware of everything going on but unable to engage with it. Paralysed from the neck down, Tony can't speak but he can think, hear and feel. He communicates through blinking, twice for no, once for yes.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Tony had a stroke in 2005 and now suffers from locked-in syndrome: he's trapped inside his body, aware of everything going on but unable to engage with it. Paralysed from the neck down, Tony can't speak but he can think, hear and feel. He communicates through blinking, twice for no, once for yes.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Why corks are popping once more
Forget screw-caps, the old-fashioned cork is making a comeback. This week, as the wine industry gathers at Vinexpo, the world's biggest wine fair in Bordeaux, traditional cork-makers are feeling buoyant.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
Iain Duncan Smith rejects cross-party pressure on women's pensions
Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, has come under fire from government backbenchers over plans to fast-track changes to the pension age, which will leave 500,000 women waiting more than an extra year before they can retire with a state pension.
The work and pensions secretary refused to bow to increasing pressure from all sides of the Commons during a debate on the pensions bill, saying there would be no change to the timetable and conceding only that he was "willing to work to get this transition right".
Read the full story at the Guardian
The work and pensions secretary refused to bow to increasing pressure from all sides of the Commons during a debate on the pensions bill, saying there would be no change to the timetable and conceding only that he was "willing to work to get this transition right".
Read the full story at the Guardian
Single parents pay the price of benefit reform
As a single mother with a young child, Becky English's career means a lot to her. The public relations manager's marriage ended six months after her daughter was born and she moved from London back to Teesside having decided it would offer her and Sophie, now four, a better standard of living.
English works four days a week, but when her six-month contract ends in November she fears she will struggle to find another position with the same convenient hours. She has been studying for a professional qualification in marketing at evening classes (while her sister looks after Sophie) to improve her job prospects.
English does not consider herself poor, but she budgets with extreme care and has cut out all but essentials. There is no spare cash at the end of the month.
Read the full story at the Guardian
English works four days a week, but when her six-month contract ends in November she fears she will struggle to find another position with the same convenient hours. She has been studying for a professional qualification in marketing at evening classes (while her sister looks after Sophie) to improve her job prospects.
English does not consider herself poor, but she budgets with extreme care and has cut out all but essentials. There is no spare cash at the end of the month.
Read the full story at the Guardian
EU calls for women to make up one-third of bank directors
Britain's banks could be radically overhauled under new proposals from Brussels demanding that a third of the directors on the boards of banks should be female.
A draft directive circulating in the City shows that Michel Barnier, Europe's internal markets commissioner, wants to impose mandatory quotas to dictate the number of women of sitting on bank boards. He believes the change would help prevent the kind of "group think" often blamed for exacerbating the crisis that struck the industry in 2008.
His plan contrasts sharply with the UK government's less radical decision, after an inquiry by the former trade minister Lord Davies, to set targets to encourage greater female representation in the boardroom.
Read the full story on the Guardian
A draft directive circulating in the City shows that Michel Barnier, Europe's internal markets commissioner, wants to impose mandatory quotas to dictate the number of women of sitting on bank boards. He believes the change would help prevent the kind of "group think" often blamed for exacerbating the crisis that struck the industry in 2008.
His plan contrasts sharply with the UK government's less radical decision, after an inquiry by the former trade minister Lord Davies, to set targets to encourage greater female representation in the boardroom.
Read the full story on the Guardian
How psychiatry became a damage limitation exercise
The warnings issued by the Royal College of Psychiatrists about the fate of psychiatric services in the UK will ring true for mental health workers and patients alike. The huge pressures put on inpatient units, the shortage of beds and the often unnecessary and intrusive bureaucracy all contribute to lowering standards of care. This, combined with a reduction in the number of trainee psychiatrists and increasing difficulty in obtaining visas for overseas workers, spells gloom for the future of mental health. Ministers are being exhorted to act now, before this dreadful situation becomes irreversible. But what action should they take?
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
This attack on legal aid is an attack on justice
Thirty years ago, I brought together local people and progressive lawyers to form the second Community Law Centre in Britain, still going strong to this day. The centre has been a lifeline for those in need of legal advice and representation, challenging public authorities – such as when we won the battle to change building regulations following the tragic death of a young husband, trapped in a high-rise Stonebridge estate flat because there was no way out of his burning flat.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
It's not 7,000, but 700,000 seriously ill people who'll lose their sickness benefit
I was delighted to see Ed Miliband raise so passionately the issue of 7,000 cancer patients who will lose all employment and support allowance after one year (Miliband puts Cameron under pressure over coalition plan to cut cancer patients' benefits, 16 June). As you report, "Complex changes to eligibility for employment support allowance [previously incapacity benefit] for some groups could result in as many as 7,000 cancer patients losing up to £94 a week in sickness benefit."
This is an issue that many sickness and disability campaigners such as myself have been urgently trying to raise awareness of for months. As the article pointed out, however, David Cameron "did not seem to be aware of the detailed measure in the bill, even though it has been raised for months in parliament and the media".
Read the full story in the Guardian
This is an issue that many sickness and disability campaigners such as myself have been urgently trying to raise awareness of for months. As the article pointed out, however, David Cameron "did not seem to be aware of the detailed measure in the bill, even though it has been raised for months in parliament and the media".
Read the full story in the Guardian
Criminalising squatting would threaten our rights
The publication of the legal aid, sentencing and punishment bill has been widely reported as another major policy U-turn for the coalition government. Plans for sentencing reform heralded by the justice secretary Ken Clarke in December as a "rehabilitation revolution" have been replaced by a more traditional law and order agenda. "Hug-a-hoody" liberalism has finally morphed fully-formed, so it would seem, into its muscular revanchist doppelganger.
Less remarked in yesterday's speech by the prime minister outlining the new revised plans was a proposal to criminalise squatting subject to a brief consultation period. The announcement is, in many respects, hardly surprising. The justice secretary had already mooted the idea in March following a series of high-profile squats and the re-emergence of occupation-based practices as a key tactic of a vibrant and growing anti-cuts movement. If this is a move that may plausibly be seen as an attempt to further sanctify the virtues of private property, the impact of the ban on the use of "occupation" as a legitimate tool of protest must also be considered.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Less remarked in yesterday's speech by the prime minister outlining the new revised plans was a proposal to criminalise squatting subject to a brief consultation period. The announcement is, in many respects, hardly surprising. The justice secretary had already mooted the idea in March following a series of high-profile squats and the re-emergence of occupation-based practices as a key tactic of a vibrant and growing anti-cuts movement. If this is a move that may plausibly be seen as an attempt to further sanctify the virtues of private property, the impact of the ban on the use of "occupation" as a legitimate tool of protest must also be considered.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Michele Bachmann: homophobe-in-chief?
Given the explosive excitement surrounding congresswoman Michele Bachmann's White House bid, it was perhaps no surprise that organisers of a Minneapolis conservative bloggers' conference, Right Online, over the weekend chose to introduce her with the infuriatingly catchy Katy Perry song "Firework".
Bachmann is now a real rock star of the hardcore Republican right and the Tea Party faithful. But the song choice showed a profound misunderstanding of popular culture. For Firework – whatever one thinks of its musical merits – is a gay anthem. The video Perry filmed to go with it preaches a message of universal tolerance and includes a young man coming to happy terms with his sexuality and kissing another man. Which, to put it mildly, is ironic for Bachmann and her legion of supporters.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Bachmann is now a real rock star of the hardcore Republican right and the Tea Party faithful. But the song choice showed a profound misunderstanding of popular culture. For Firework – whatever one thinks of its musical merits – is a gay anthem. The video Perry filmed to go with it preaches a message of universal tolerance and includes a young man coming to happy terms with his sexuality and kissing another man. Which, to put it mildly, is ironic for Bachmann and her legion of supporters.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Students march for a better Chile
Chile's Sebastián Piñera government is facing hard times. In addition to citizen disapproval rates currently standing at 56%, he now has to contend with massive student protests of a scale not seen in Chile since the return of democracy in 1990. The latest large-scale protest brought together hundreds of thousands of people across the country, demanding better public education and social justice in one of the countries with, according to the Gini index, the highest inequality levels.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
Private hospitals are no place for people with learning disabilities
Three weeks on, the fallout continues from BBC Panorama's exposure of sickening abuse of people with learning disabilities at the Winterbourne View private hospital near Bristol. Already it –is clear that the programme will come to be seen as a key milestone on the long journey to a civilised system of care and support for this section of society.
On Wednesday, more than 80 leading figures in the learning disability sector lend their names to a letter to the prime minister demanding an end to the placement of people in such facilities. There is, the letter says, "no place for hospitals such as Winterbourne View" and seeking to improve them will not do. "The model is wrong and does not work."
Read the full story at the Guardian
On Wednesday, more than 80 leading figures in the learning disability sector lend their names to a letter to the prime minister demanding an end to the placement of people in such facilities. There is, the letter says, "no place for hospitals such as Winterbourne View" and seeking to improve them will not do. "The model is wrong and does not work."
Read the full story at the Guardian
Almost a quarter of state school pupils are from an ethnic minority
England's state schools are far more ethnically diverse than they were five years ago, with almost a quarter of all pupils in primary and secondaries from an ethnic minority, official statistics show.
Some 24.3% of pupils in state primaries and secondaries are from an ethnic minority, according to figures collected in January and published by the Department for Education (DfE). Five years ago, the proportion was 19.8%.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Some 24.3% of pupils in state primaries and secondaries are from an ethnic minority, according to figures collected in January and published by the Department for Education (DfE). Five years ago, the proportion was 19.8%.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Miliband and Cameron clash over rape case DNA legislation
Downing Street insisted David Cameron was not going to conduct a U-turn on the retention of suspects' DNA in rape cases after being put under pressure on the issue by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband.
The protection of freedoms bill requires the removal of DNA profiles from police databases after five years in all cases in which no charges are brought, but rape victims' groups have called for DNA to be retained in exceptional cases.
Read the full story at the Guardian
The protection of freedoms bill requires the removal of DNA profiles from police databases after five years in all cases in which no charges are brought, but rape victims' groups have called for DNA to be retained in exceptional cases.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Women's rights activist missing in Iran
An Iranian photojournalist and women's rights activist who campaigned for female football fans to be allowed to enter stadiums has disappeared.
Maryam Majd, 25, is feared to have been held by security officials before boarding a flight from Tehran to Düsseldorf, Germany, where she intended to cover the Fifa Women's World Cup.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Maryam Majd, 25, is feared to have been held by security officials before boarding a flight from Tehran to Düsseldorf, Germany, where she intended to cover the Fifa Women's World Cup.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Female law student jailed after making up rape allegation because she was ashamed of failing university
A former law student who cried rape because she was ‘too ashamed’ to tell her family she had been kicked out of university was locked up for two years yesterday.
Aisha Mather, 19, ripped her tights, overturned a coffee table and pulled down curtains in an attempt to convince police she had been attacked at knifepoint and raped in her home.
She believed this would give her an excuse to leave her course and move back in with her parents, and kept up the pretence for eight days – even after police arrested a man who matched her detailed description of the tattooed black ‘rapist’.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Aisha Mather, 19, ripped her tights, overturned a coffee table and pulled down curtains in an attempt to convince police she had been attacked at knifepoint and raped in her home.
She believed this would give her an excuse to leave her course and move back in with her parents, and kept up the pretence for eight days – even after police arrested a man who matched her detailed description of the tattooed black ‘rapist’.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Children's doctor Philipp Bonhoeffer wins hearsay evidence case
A paediatric cardiologist has won his High Court bid to prevent hearsay evidence being used in disciplinary proceedings over child abuse claims.
Prof Philipp Bonhoeffer, of Camden, north London, denies allegations of sexually abusing children in Kenya.
Read the full story at the BBC
Prof Philipp Bonhoeffer, of Camden, north London, denies allegations of sexually abusing children in Kenya.
Read the full story at the BBC
Legal highs 'becoming bigger issue than illegal drugs'
Legal highs are becoming a bigger problem than illegal drugs, with many young people wrongly believing they are safe, a drugs worker claims.
Alan Andrews, an ex-heroin addict who runs a Llanelli-based drug intervention centre, said some legal drugs were stronger than illegal counterparts.
He told BBC Wales' Week In Week Out that legal did not mean safe.
Read the full story on the BBC
Alan Andrews, an ex-heroin addict who runs a Llanelli-based drug intervention centre, said some legal drugs were stronger than illegal counterparts.
He told BBC Wales' Week In Week Out that legal did not mean safe.
Read the full story on the BBC
Drugs treatment policy for England 'doomed to failure'
Government policies for treating drug addicts in England are flawed and "doomed to failure", a think tank says.
The Centre for Policy Studies says rehabilitation is a better use of the £3.6bn now spent on treating users with drug substitutes like methadone and keeping them on benefits each year.
Read the full story on the BBC
The Centre for Policy Studies says rehabilitation is a better use of the £3.6bn now spent on treating users with drug substitutes like methadone and keeping them on benefits each year.
Read the full story on the BBC
Nova Scotia told to fund medical marijuana operation
A Canadian province has been ordered to pay for an ill couple's medical marijuana, Canadian media report.
The Nova Scotia income assistance appeals board ruled the couple needed treatment but were unable to afford growing supplies, CBC news reports.
The board ordered Nova Scotia to pay 2,500 Canadian dollars ($2,541; £1,569) to set up the growing operation.
Read the full story on the BBC
The Nova Scotia income assistance appeals board ruled the couple needed treatment but were unable to afford growing supplies, CBC news reports.
The board ordered Nova Scotia to pay 2,500 Canadian dollars ($2,541; £1,569) to set up the growing operation.
Read the full story on the BBC
MP calls for smoke ban in cars carrying children
A Labour MP has called for a ban on adults smoking in cars where children are present, saying it would bring "tremendous" health benefits.
Alex Cunningham said children were particularly vulnerable to the effects of passive smoking and could not "remove" themselves from cars where cigarette smoke was circulating.
Parents simply exercising restraint was "not good enough", he told MPs.
But one Tory MP called the plan "over the top" and "ludicrous".
Read the full story on the BBC
Alex Cunningham said children were particularly vulnerable to the effects of passive smoking and could not "remove" themselves from cars where cigarette smoke was circulating.
Parents simply exercising restraint was "not good enough", he told MPs.
But one Tory MP called the plan "over the top" and "ludicrous".
Read the full story on the BBC
China artist Ai Weiwei released on bail
Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has returned home having been freed after more than two months' detention.
He was bailed late on Wednesday after pleading guilty to charges of tax evasion, Xinhua news agency said.
An outspoken critic of China's human rights record, his arrest in April prompted a global campaign for his release.
Read the full story on the BBC
He was bailed late on Wednesday after pleading guilty to charges of tax evasion, Xinhua news agency said.
An outspoken critic of China's human rights record, his arrest in April prompted a global campaign for his release.
Read the full story on the BBC
Former soldier jailed for five years for underage sex
A former soldier has been jailed for five years after he admitted having sex with a 15-year-old girl.
Belfast Crown Court heard that Nigel Hall, 40, from Bendigo Street, Belfast began the "relationship of sorts" with the girl in the summer of 2008.
Read the full story on the BBC
Belfast Crown Court heard that Nigel Hall, 40, from Bendigo Street, Belfast began the "relationship of sorts" with the girl in the summer of 2008.
Read the full story on the BBC
Newry sex attacks 'linked to Sean Heaton by DNA'
DNA evidence links an alleged rapist to sex attacks on three different women, the High Court heard on Wednesday.
The victims were all dragged into alleyways and assaulted, according to the prosecution.
The attacks happened in Newry and Warrenpoint, County Down between 2002 and 2006.
Read the full story on the BBC
The victims were all dragged into alleyways and assaulted, according to the prosecution.
The attacks happened in Newry and Warrenpoint, County Down between 2002 and 2006.
Read the full story on the BBC
Boy talked of killing ex-girlfriend Rebecca Aylward, 15
A schoolboy accused of murdering a former girlfriend had talked about killing her to friends, a court heard.
Rebecca Aylward, 15, of Maesteg, near Bridgend, south Wales, was battered to death and her body found in woodland last October.
A 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies murder.
Read the full story on the BBC
Rebecca Aylward, 15, of Maesteg, near Bridgend, south Wales, was battered to death and her body found in woodland last October.
A 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies murder.
Read the full story on the BBC
Booze for wrinklies: Good or bad?
UK trick-cyclists and American "exercise psychologists" took up diametrically opposed views today on the issue of whether old people should be allowed to drink booze.
Leading the British media was a new report from the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Older People’s Substance Misuse Working Group, which asserts that the nation's old-timers have their back teeth awash to a perilous degree, and demands that the government issue a new and tougher recommended daily alcohol limit for the silver drinker.
Read the full story on The Register
Leading the British media was a new report from the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Older People’s Substance Misuse Working Group, which asserts that the nation's old-timers have their back teeth awash to a perilous degree, and demands that the government issue a new and tougher recommended daily alcohol limit for the silver drinker.
Read the full story on The Register
'We didn't just swap wives, we swapped lives': How Yankees stars traded families in scandal that rocked Seventies baseball
The story of Seventies baseball stars Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich would make for a far-fetched movie script.
But that the infamous wife-swap performed by the Yankees pitchers in 1972 is a true story, makes it a compelling tale that begs to be retold.
More interesting still, is that it is two Red Sox fans - Ben Affleck and Matt Damon - who have decided to bring it to the big screen, in their upcoming film The Trade.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
But that the infamous wife-swap performed by the Yankees pitchers in 1972 is a true story, makes it a compelling tale that begs to be retold.
More interesting still, is that it is two Red Sox fans - Ben Affleck and Matt Damon - who have decided to bring it to the big screen, in their upcoming film The Trade.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Beware the 'alpha female', she's less likely to succeed if she's ballsy in the boardroom
Having fought their way into the boardroom they are a match for any man.
But a study has shown that when women bosses try to 'act like a man' and copy aggressive management styles it actually has the opposite effect - with staff working under so-called 'alpha females' less likely to co-operate to get results.
Researchers at the University of London found that women in the boardroom who suppress their natural skills in dealing with people can become confrontational, and would fare better from drawing on typical feminine qualities of sensitivity and good communication.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
But a study has shown that when women bosses try to 'act like a man' and copy aggressive management styles it actually has the opposite effect - with staff working under so-called 'alpha females' less likely to co-operate to get results.
Researchers at the University of London found that women in the boardroom who suppress their natural skills in dealing with people can become confrontational, and would fare better from drawing on typical feminine qualities of sensitivity and good communication.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
'It was like a bomb going off, but a nice bomb': Mother logs into Facebook account to find message from son she gave up for adoption 30 years ago
A mother was left stunned when she logged on to Facebook to find a message from the son she had given up for adoption over 30 years ago.
Pat Corlett, from Liverpool, was contacted by 36-year-old Chris Haworth - who she had not seen since he was six days old - on the social networking site last year.
The message began 'Hi my name is Chris and I was born on 22nd June 1975.' He then went on to ask her to contact him but added, 'You may not want to reply to this.'
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Pat Corlett, from Liverpool, was contacted by 36-year-old Chris Haworth - who she had not seen since he was six days old - on the social networking site last year.
The message began 'Hi my name is Chris and I was born on 22nd June 1975.' He then went on to ask her to contact him but added, 'You may not want to reply to this.'
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Pervert tax consultant posed as Harrods' modelling agent to trick women into bizarre sex acts
A tax consultant posed as a modelling agent for Harrods in a bid to trick women into bizarre sex acts.
Jeffrey Edwards scoured small ads and customers' details on his work database to identify victims. He told them he was a fashion industry insider called Brett Raphael.
The 47-year-old, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, offered modelling work to 18 women over three years, using home-made documents and cash to convince them he was a talent scout for top stores, including the famous Harrods store in London.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Jeffrey Edwards scoured small ads and customers' details on his work database to identify victims. He told them he was a fashion industry insider called Brett Raphael.
The 47-year-old, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, offered modelling work to 18 women over three years, using home-made documents and cash to convince them he was a talent scout for top stores, including the famous Harrods store in London.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Just half a glass of wine a day 'raises risk of breast cancer'
Just half a glass of wine a day raises a woman’s chance of developing breast cancer, one of Britain's leading doctors has warned.
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore said that even those who stick within Government recommended limits for alcohol could be at higher risk.
He warned that one unit of alcohol a day - half a glass of wine - increased the risk of breast cancer by ten per cent.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore said that even those who stick within Government recommended limits for alcohol could be at higher risk.
He warned that one unit of alcohol a day - half a glass of wine - increased the risk of breast cancer by ten per cent.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Amish man in Indiana arrested, accused of sexting girl, 12
Police in Indiana say they arrested an Amish man who arrived in a horse-drawn buggy for a presumed rendezvous with a 12-year-old girl to whom he had sent sexually explicit cell phone messages.
Read the full story at CNN
Read the full story at CNN
Should Prenatal Care Be Extended to Dads?
Perhaps it's because mom has the burgeoning belly, but dads have largely been left out of prenatal care. That could be damaging to the family's health, contends research in a recent issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Stressed-out, anxious pregnant women who don't receive adequate support are linked to less-than-ideal infant health outcomes. The role fathers-to-be play hasn't been studied nearly as much, but because pregnant women rely on them for support and care, researcher ManSoo Yu says it stands to reason that inattentive expectant fathers may also contribute to poorer infant health.
Read the full story at Time Magazine
Stressed-out, anxious pregnant women who don't receive adequate support are linked to less-than-ideal infant health outcomes. The role fathers-to-be play hasn't been studied nearly as much, but because pregnant women rely on them for support and care, researcher ManSoo Yu says it stands to reason that inattentive expectant fathers may also contribute to poorer infant health.
Read the full story at Time Magazine
How We Get Addicted
I was driving up the Massachusetts Turnpike one evening last February when I knocked over a bottle of water. I grabbed for it, swerved inadvertently--and a few seconds later found myself blinking into the flashlight beam of a state trooper. "How much have you had to drink tonight, sir?" he demanded. Before I could help myself, I blurted out an answer that was surely a new one to him. "I haven't had a drink," I said indignantly, "since 1981."
Read the full story at Time magazine
Read the full story at Time magazine
The Curse of the Crocodile: Russia's Deadly Designer Drug
The new arrivals at the drug rehab center in Chichevo, a tiny village that is a two hours' drive east of Moscow, are usually given two weeks without chores to recover from the nausea, pain and sleeplessness of withdrawal. After that, between Bible study and prayer (the center is run by Pentecostals), they have to start chopping firewood, hauling water from the village well or otherwise helping around the old wooden house. But a lot more leeway was allowed in the case of Irina Pavlova, the only resident at the center who is addicted to krokodil, or crocodile, Russia's deadliest new designer drug.
Read the full story at Time magazine
Read the full story at Time magazine
Stories of Mass Rape: Sifting Through Rumor and Taboo in Syria
Everybody, it seemed, had heard the stories, and could relay the same horrific details about Syrian soldiers allegedly raping women and girls with cruel impunity. There were ugly accounts, told by many refugees from the northern Syrian town of Jisr al-Shughour, some of whom had crossed into nearby Turkey, and by others who remained in a strip of Syrian territory hugging the Turkish border.
Read the full story in Time magazine
Read the full story in Time magazine
Why Students Have a Right to Mock Teachers Online
Do students have a First Amendment right to make fun of their principals and teachers on Facebook and other social-media sites? Or can schools discipline them for talking out of school?
In a pair of free-speech rulings, a federal appeals court in Pennsylvania last week came down on the side of the students. In both cases, the court said that schools were wrong to suspend students for posting parodies of their principals on MySpace — one in which a boy made fun of his principal's body size, and another in which a girl made lewd sexual comments about her principal.
Read the full story in Time magazine
In a pair of free-speech rulings, a federal appeals court in Pennsylvania last week came down on the side of the students. In both cases, the court said that schools were wrong to suspend students for posting parodies of their principals on MySpace — one in which a boy made fun of his principal's body size, and another in which a girl made lewd sexual comments about her principal.
Read the full story in Time magazine
Study: Pop Songs Literally Get Stuck in Teens' Heads
Ever wonder why some songs are more popular than others?
Director of Emory University's Center for Neuropolicy Gregory Berns and economics research specialist Sara Moore have discovered there's some science behind that phenomenon.
Their federally-funded study, published in the June 8th issue of the Journal of Consumer Psychology, found that the strength of brain activity in teens could predict which songs would sell 20,000 copies by Nielsen standards. Likewise, the lab found that 90% of songs that received a weak neural response sold fewer than 20,000 copies.
Read the full story in Time Magazine
Director of Emory University's Center for Neuropolicy Gregory Berns and economics research specialist Sara Moore have discovered there's some science behind that phenomenon.
Their federally-funded study, published in the June 8th issue of the Journal of Consumer Psychology, found that the strength of brain activity in teens could predict which songs would sell 20,000 copies by Nielsen standards. Likewise, the lab found that 90% of songs that received a weak neural response sold fewer than 20,000 copies.
Read the full story in Time Magazine
What Gabrielle Giffords Can Expect When She Leaves Rehab
Recently released photos of a smiling Rep. Gabrielle Giffords have reassured her supporters that she is recovering well. They have also sparked much media interest — a strategic ploy by Giffords' team, who released the images in the hopes that the press will back off the Arizona congresswoman once she is discharged from inpatient treatment next month.
It's been just five months since a psychotic gunman shot Giffords in the head while she was meeting with constituents outside of a supermarket in Tucson in early January. Since Jan. 26, Giffords has been living in the residential rehabilitation clinic TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston. Next month, Giffords is scheduled to leave the facility to begin outpatient therapy; her team has not determined where.
Read the full story in Time magazine
It's been just five months since a psychotic gunman shot Giffords in the head while she was meeting with constituents outside of a supermarket in Tucson in early January. Since Jan. 26, Giffords has been living in the residential rehabilitation clinic TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston. Next month, Giffords is scheduled to leave the facility to begin outpatient therapy; her team has not determined where.
Read the full story in Time magazine
The Fathering Gap: Pitfalls of Modern Fatherhood
Father's Day, which was invented by a woman, used to be a day when the member of the family who was least often home was celebrated with a gift or card he didn't really want, which was bought with money he probably earned. Yay. These days, with a large percentage of families having two working parents, things are a little different.
This year Father's Day is being celebrated with the release of studies about what modern fatherhood is like. The upshot is not good news: there's a growing "fathering gap" in America.
Read the full story in Time Magazine
This year Father's Day is being celebrated with the release of studies about what modern fatherhood is like. The upshot is not good news: there's a growing "fathering gap" in America.
Read the full story in Time Magazine
An Addict's Battle With Painkiller Addiction Reveals Outdated Rehab Tactics
The New York Times today includes a moving personal story about overcoming opioid addiction. But while it describes one woman's triumph, it also illustrates something the Institute of Medicine calls a "quality chasm" between effective addiction care, as supported by scientific research, and the treatments people actually receive.
Read the full story in Time magazine
Read the full story in Time magazine
The Criminal Mind: How Drugs and Violence May Affect the Brain
Brain imaging studies of violent criminals are difficult to interpret because the most persistent among them — those who are responsible for a disproportionate amount of all crime — are not only violent but also overwhelmingly addicted to alcohol and other drugs. That makes it hard to work out which brain changes are associated with addiction (which isn't usually associated with violence) and which changes are connected with brutal behavior.
Read the full story in Time magazine
Read the full story in Time magazine
Hearing Things? It May Be Your Coffee Buzz
If you're stressed out and hopped up on caffeine — and who isn't these days — you might be prone to hallucinating, namely hearing snatches of the tune "White Christmas" in white noise, according to a recent study by Australian researchers.
Read the full story in Time magazine
Read the full story in Time magazine
Bangkok's Lucrative Hangover: Sex, Drugs and Popular Sequels
In "Farangs," a short story by Thai-American writer Rattawut Lapcharoensap, a guesthouse owner grumbles about foreign tourists and their narrow tastes. "P---y and elephants," she says. "That's all these people want."
Actually, we foreigners want much more. We want a drug-dealing monkey and an ass-kicking monk. We want a facial tattoo, men with breasts, and Mike Tyson tunelessly singing "One Night in Bangkok." And we get them all in The Hangover Part II, a sequel to the highest-grossing R-rated comedy in U.S. box-office history.
Read the full story in Time
Actually, we foreigners want much more. We want a drug-dealing monkey and an ass-kicking monk. We want a facial tattoo, men with breasts, and Mike Tyson tunelessly singing "One Night in Bangkok." And we get them all in The Hangover Part II, a sequel to the highest-grossing R-rated comedy in U.S. box-office history.
Read the full story in Time
Pregnant and Bound for America: Why Chinese Moms Want to Give Birth on U.S. Soil
When Liu Li boarded a plane for the United States, she had a little bit of makeup on, was wearing a loose dress, and had her hair up. She tried to hold her handbag in front of her belly in a natural way, just as the middleman had taught her. She was trying to look as calm as any wealthy Chinese lady would look when travelling abroad. But Liu Li couldn't help feeling terribly nervous: she was six months pregnant when she left for the United States, where she wanted to give birth to an American citizen.
Read the full story in Time
Read the full story in Time
Magic Mushrooms Drug Shows Promise as Therapeutic Tool
Psilocybin, a powerful psychoactive substance derived from magic mushrooms, can safely be used in a controlled setting to help people have positive and often life-altering experiences, a new study shows.
Read the full story on WebMD
Read the full story on WebMD
Naked Bike Riders Expected Saturday Night
Portlanders are expected to gather Saturday night for the World Naked Bike Ride.
The ride starts at 10 p.m., but riders are asked to meet at the corner of Southwest Water Avenue and Salmon Street at 9 p.m.
Read more on Fox 12 Oregon
The ride starts at 10 p.m., but riders are asked to meet at the corner of Southwest Water Avenue and Salmon Street at 9 p.m.
Read more on Fox 12 Oregon
Boy wears dress and heels to school, gets suspended
A 15-year-old boy has been suspended from school after wearing high heels and a dress to school as a part of a challenge laid down by his mother.
Sam Saurs, a ninth grader at Sedgwick Junior High School in Port Orchard, said he told his mother that wearing high heels wouldn't be that hard. Saurs' mother challenged him to try it and he accepted. To take it even further, he decided to wear a dress, too.
Read the full story on MSNBC
Sam Saurs, a ninth grader at Sedgwick Junior High School in Port Orchard, said he told his mother that wearing high heels wouldn't be that hard. Saurs' mother challenged him to try it and he accepted. To take it even further, he decided to wear a dress, too.
Read the full story on MSNBC
Teen Dies After Attending Dallas Rave
Dallas officials say a teenager has died and more than two dozen others at a music festival were treated at hospitals for drug, alcohol and heat-related problems.
Read the full story on MyFoxdfw
Read the full story on MyFoxdfw
Daughters and Dad's Approval
It's no secret that the past few decades have transformed traditional gender relationships. Both men and women are operating by a whole new set of rules.
Given the depth of the change, you might expect a dramatic alteration in one of the most fundamental male-female relationships: the one between dads and daughters.
In my research into the lives of some 75 high-achieving, clearly independent women, I knew that I would find a powerful connection between them and the first men in their lives. Many other studies have confirmed it. What surprised me was how deep (and surprisingly traditional) the bond is, how powerful it remains throughout their lives, and how resilient it can be—even when a father has caused it grievous harm.
Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal
Given the depth of the change, you might expect a dramatic alteration in one of the most fundamental male-female relationships: the one between dads and daughters.
In my research into the lives of some 75 high-achieving, clearly independent women, I knew that I would find a powerful connection between them and the first men in their lives. Many other studies have confirmed it. What surprised me was how deep (and surprisingly traditional) the bond is, how powerful it remains throughout their lives, and how resilient it can be—even when a father has caused it grievous harm.
Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal
Super Bowl hero warns of 'anarchy' if NY approves gay marriage
Former New York Giants receiver David Tyree's celebrated catch in the closing seconds of Super Bowl XLII was pivotal to his team's victory. Now out of football, he is trying to claim a last-minute win over another foe -- same-sex marriage.
On the same day that the New York State Assembly approved a same-sex marriage bill, Tyree warned of dire consequences if the legislation becomes law.
Read the full story on CNN
On the same day that the New York State Assembly approved a same-sex marriage bill, Tyree warned of dire consequences if the legislation becomes law.
Read the full story on CNN
Fairfax ‘Beltway sex’ jury awards $22,000 to cabbie
The man who claimed he was having sex in a speeding car on the Beltway last year has been ordered to pay $22,000 to the cabdriver whose minivan was struck from behind in an apparent drunk driving episode.
Read the full story at the Washington Post
Read the full story at the Washington Post
Married but feel like a single parent? You’ve got company.
Last week, amid all the stories about the new modern dad and how he is carrying more burdens at home, a new study was released that didn’t get much attention. The survey of mothers found a very different trend in households: many women feeling like “married single moms.”
Read the full story on the Washington Post
Read the full story on the Washington Post
Michele Bachmann leads a new form of evangelical feminism
Of course, Bachmann’s campaign is about much more than motherhood, but in evoking the mother role, the congresswoman does with her gender what she has failed to do with her rhetoric: She opens up the possibility of her candidacy appealing to a broader range of voters.
Read the full story at the Washington Post
Read the full story at the Washington Post
How is a thin woman like a fat woman?
On being thin in a weight-conscious society:
After just having a stressful lunch with some friends, I’d like to shout out that thin people don’t like to be mocked any more than overweight people do.
Read the full story at the Washington Post
After just having a stressful lunch with some friends, I’d like to shout out that thin people don’t like to be mocked any more than overweight people do.
Read the full story at the Washington Post
US yearbook 'sex act' may attract charges
AMERICAN detectives say child sex charges could be filed against a Southern California teenager whose hand is shown up the dress of a 15-year-old girl in a yearbook photo.
Students at Big Bear High School were asked to turn in their yearbooks last week after the photo was discovered inside the memory book.
Read the full story at The Australian
Students at Big Bear High School were asked to turn in their yearbooks last week after the photo was discovered inside the memory book.
Read the full story at The Australian
Poverty sees kids suffer in science
POOR students not only start school behind their peers but are given less chance to catch up, as an international study shows disadvantaged students in Australia spend about 30 minutes less a week studying science than students from more affluent families.
Read the full story at the Australian
Read the full story at the Australian
Australian Defence Force facing 1000 abuse claims
A THOUSAND complaints about sexual assault and other brutality in the Australian Defence Force have been lodged since the Skype sex scandal became public in April.
DLA Piper, the law firm commissioned to conduct an external inquiry into sexual and other abuse in the military, said late yesterday that some former and current Defence personnel had alleged they were subjected to multiple incidents or issues.
"The allegations range from relatively minor matters to very serious matters," the firm said.
Read the full story at the Australian
DLA Piper, the law firm commissioned to conduct an external inquiry into sexual and other abuse in the military, said late yesterday that some former and current Defence personnel had alleged they were subjected to multiple incidents or issues.
"The allegations range from relatively minor matters to very serious matters," the firm said.
Read the full story at the Australian
Fenugreek could be spice of sex life
THE secret to boosting your libido could be as simple as adding a bit of spice to your sex life - literally.
A study by Brisbane-based company Applied Science and Nutrition in conjunction with the Centre for Integrative Clinical and Molecular Medicine, within the University of Queensland's medical school, found men taking the herb fenugreek can boost their sex drive by at least a quarter.
Read the full story at Courier Mail
A study by Brisbane-based company Applied Science and Nutrition in conjunction with the Centre for Integrative Clinical and Molecular Medicine, within the University of Queensland's medical school, found men taking the herb fenugreek can boost their sex drive by at least a quarter.
Read the full story at Courier Mail
Facebook blamed for fight between two Melbourne schoolgirls
BULLYING on Facebook has been blamed for a violent confrontation between two Melbourne schoolgirls caught on film by classmates unwilling to intervene.
A 14-year-old, who has remained anonymous, has told Channel 9 she was too afraid to go to school after repeated attacks by a 16-year-old girl from another school.
In the footage, recorded in February, the victim can be seen being dragged by her hair while she refuses to fight. She is then kicked in the head.
Students can be seen doing nothing to help her.
Read the full story on News.com.au
A 14-year-old, who has remained anonymous, has told Channel 9 she was too afraid to go to school after repeated attacks by a 16-year-old girl from another school.
In the footage, recorded in February, the victim can be seen being dragged by her hair while she refuses to fight. She is then kicked in the head.
Students can be seen doing nothing to help her.
Read the full story on News.com.au
Dancing with the Stars co-host Sonia Kruger on Daniel MacPherson and wanting a baby
THAT sound you can hear is her body clock ticking. The "Dancing with the Stars" co-host is 45 and the chance of having a baby is slowly slipping away.
Read the full story at the Australian Daily Telegraph
Read the full story at the Australian Daily Telegraph
My day under cover as a Muslim woman
DAILY Telegraph reporter Clementine Cuneo donned a traditional Muslim woman's dress and headwear yesterday to see how people from two culturally different Sydney suburbs reacted to her full-covered appearance in the wake of a controversial court ruling.
Read the full story in the Australian Daily Telegraph
Read the full story in the Australian Daily Telegraph
Lost actor Doug Hutchison, 51, marries Courtney Stodden, 16, in Las Vegas
ONE of the stars of Lost has married a beauty queen and aspiring country singer in Las Vegas. Nothing remarkable in that except he's 51 and she's 16.
Actor Doug Hutchison, who is known for playing creepy scientist Horace in Lost and the twisted prison guard with a taste for wetting himself and stamping on mice in The Green Mile, says that his love for Courtney Alexis Stodden is ageless.
He also says there is nothing strange about their relationship or their nuptials.
Read the full story at Perth Now
Actor Doug Hutchison, who is known for playing creepy scientist Horace in Lost and the twisted prison guard with a taste for wetting himself and stamping on mice in The Green Mile, says that his love for Courtney Alexis Stodden is ageless.
He also says there is nothing strange about their relationship or their nuptials.
Read the full story at Perth Now
Muslim woman Carnita Matthews escapes jail by remaining behind her burqa
THE woman at the centre of the burqa row, Carnita Matthews, has a long record of driving offences and a history of not paying her fines.
Court documents have revealed that she had been fined seven times for traffic infringements before she was stopped by police in June last year for not displaying her P-plates in the incident that sparked the row that spilled over to the District Court in NSW yesterday.
Read the full story at The Australian
Court documents have revealed that she had been fined seven times for traffic infringements before she was stopped by police in June last year for not displaying her P-plates in the incident that sparked the row that spilled over to the District Court in NSW yesterday.
Read the full story at The Australian
Food price rises cause discontent and stress among poor
When there's a shock, development wonks rush for their models and start calculating the impact on "the poor", based on how many millions slip into poverty when prices rise by X or GDP falls by Y. But what's extraordinary is how seldom researchers think to talk to poor people. When they do, the answers are revealing, as we found when we researched Living on a Spike, a report on the impact of the 2011 food price crisis, published on Tuesday by Oxfam and the Institute of Development Studies.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
Save Stonehenge from midsummer madness
Eighteen thousand pagans, druids and – for all I know – modern Aztecs gathered at Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice. There were some drugs arrests, but judging from reports, English Heritage seem pleased with the numbers. Er, why? And why is this daft festival even allowed?
In the 1980s hippies fought the police for their right to revel. So that is why it is permitted: because otherwise there would be public violence on Salisbury Plain. But there is no historical tradition justifying the pagan takeover of Britain's most celebrated ancient monument every midsummer. There is not even a theological justification, for no connection exists between Stonehenge and modern paganism.
Read the full story at the Guardian
In the 1980s hippies fought the police for their right to revel. So that is why it is permitted: because otherwise there would be public violence on Salisbury Plain. But there is no historical tradition justifying the pagan takeover of Britain's most celebrated ancient monument every midsummer. There is not even a theological justification, for no connection exists between Stonehenge and modern paganism.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Court Issues Split Ruling on Poor’s Right to Counsel
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday gave a complicated answer to the simple question of whether poor people facing jail time for failing to pay child support are entitled to court-appointed lawyers.
In a 5-to-4 decision that divided along ideological lines, the court said there is no automatic right to counsel for people charged with civil contempt, at least when the parent seeking to collect child support does not have a lawyer. In those circumstances, Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote for the majority, states must use “substantial procedural safeguards.”
Read the full story at the New York Times
In a 5-to-4 decision that divided along ideological lines, the court said there is no automatic right to counsel for people charged with civil contempt, at least when the parent seeking to collect child support does not have a lawyer. In those circumstances, Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote for the majority, states must use “substantial procedural safeguards.”
Read the full story at the New York Times
Lost in Time and Words, a Child Begins Anew
TO this day it is hard for me to speak about possessing any real sense of a home, at least during my childhood and adolescence. Or, to put this idea more precisely: whatever sense of a secure home life, of belonging, that I once felt as a boy was whisked out from under my feet at a tender age.
I was born in the summer of 1951 in Manhattan, at Woman’s Hospital in Harlem, the first four years of my life passing serenely in our ground-floor walk-through on West 118th Street, where my parents, fresh up from Cuba, had settled in the mid-1940s. What few and primitive memories I have from those years are of a busy and boisterous household, with relatives and newly arrived boarders constantly filling the spare beds and cots we kept in a back room; and of crawling along the floors during the many weekend parties that my papi, a spendthrift Cubano to the core, often gave. On such occasions, our living room, facing the street, became a cozy, if smoke-filled, dance hall, replete with dim lights, music, food and booze — fetes that attracted Cubans and other Latinos to our home from every part of the city.
Read the full story at the New York Times
I was born in the summer of 1951 in Manhattan, at Woman’s Hospital in Harlem, the first four years of my life passing serenely in our ground-floor walk-through on West 118th Street, where my parents, fresh up from Cuba, had settled in the mid-1940s. What few and primitive memories I have from those years are of a busy and boisterous household, with relatives and newly arrived boarders constantly filling the spare beds and cots we kept in a back room; and of crawling along the floors during the many weekend parties that my papi, a spendthrift Cubano to the core, often gave. On such occasions, our living room, facing the street, became a cozy, if smoke-filled, dance hall, replete with dim lights, music, food and booze — fetes that attracted Cubans and other Latinos to our home from every part of the city.
Read the full story at the New York Times
My Ex-Gay Friend
One Saturday afternoon last winter, I drove north on Route 85 through the rolling rangeland of southeastern Wyoming. I was headed to a small town north of Cheyenne to see an old friend and colleague named Michael Glatze. We worked together 12 years ago at XY, a San Francisco-based national magazine for young gay men, back when we were young gay men ourselves.
Read the full story at the New York Times
Read the full story at the New York Times
U.S. Releases Graphic Images to Deter Smokers
Federal health officials on Tuesday released their final selection of nine graphic warning labels to cover the top half of cigarette packages beginning next year, over the opposition of tobacco manufacturers.
In the first major change to warning labels in more than a quarter-century, the graphic images will include photographs of horribly damaged teeth and lungs and a man exhaling smoke through a tracheotomy opening in his neck. The Department of Health and Human Services selected nine color images among 36 proposed to accompany larger text warnings.
Read the full story at the New York Times
In the first major change to warning labels in more than a quarter-century, the graphic images will include photographs of horribly damaged teeth and lungs and a man exhaling smoke through a tracheotomy opening in his neck. The Department of Health and Human Services selected nine color images among 36 proposed to accompany larger text warnings.
Read the full story at the New York Times
A food security strategy we can't afford not to fund
Less than 10 years ago, a generation of children was born to subsistence farmers in Liberia, a country torn by civil war and conflict. Some of their mothers became a political force against the oppression and violence of the government. They won their freedom. Today, thanks in part to these courageous women, Liberia is a young democracy that has elected the first female head of state in Africa.
But these same women, who risked their lives for the safe future of their children, are struggling with a much more basic challenge: providing food for their families. When the rain stops, their crops dry up, and when international food prices increase, they can't purchase enough food with their small incomes. Parents in countries like Liberia won freedom from war for their children, but now, they fight for a luxury we take for granted: food security.
Read the full story at the Guardian
But these same women, who risked their lives for the safe future of their children, are struggling with a much more basic challenge: providing food for their families. When the rain stops, their crops dry up, and when international food prices increase, they can't purchase enough food with their small incomes. Parents in countries like Liberia won freedom from war for their children, but now, they fight for a luxury we take for granted: food security.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Tracey Emin to design 2012 Olympic posters
British artists including Tracey Emin are to design Olympic and Paralympic posters for the London 2012 Games.
The posters, by artists including Turner Prize winners Martin Creed and Rachel Whiteread, will be shown in a free exhibition at Tate Britain.
It is part of the London 2012 Festival - the finale of the Cultural Olympiad - which begins in a year from Tuesday.
Read the full story at the BBC
The posters, by artists including Turner Prize winners Martin Creed and Rachel Whiteread, will be shown in a free exhibition at Tate Britain.
It is part of the London 2012 Festival - the finale of the Cultural Olympiad - which begins in a year from Tuesday.
Read the full story at the BBC
More new mothers are opting to breastfeed UK data shows
More new mothers are opting to try breastfeeding their babies, latest UK figures reveal.
The NHS Information Centre data shows more than eight out of 10 newborns are now breastfed at least once after birth, up from six out of 10 in 1990.
Experts said the increase was welcome and partly due to public awareness that "breast is best" for mother and child.
Read the full story at the BBC
The NHS Information Centre data shows more than eight out of 10 newborns are now breastfed at least once after birth, up from six out of 10 in 1990.
Experts said the increase was welcome and partly due to public awareness that "breast is best" for mother and child.
Read the full story at the BBC
Hillary Clinton praises 'brave' Saudi women drivers
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has praised "brave" Saudi women who are campaigning for the right to drive.
Mrs Clinton said they were "right" to press their demands in the ultra-conservative kingdom, in her first public comments on the issue.
Read the full story at the BBC
Mrs Clinton said they were "right" to press their demands in the ultra-conservative kingdom, in her first public comments on the issue.
Read the full story at the BBC
Was Amy Winehouse's Belgrade gig really that bad?
Amy Winehouse's gig in Belgrade has been called the worst concert ever to take place in the city. Even Serbian defence minister Dragan Sutanovac put the boot in, calling it "a huge shame and a disappointment".
Audience members have inundated YouTube with clips from the concert showing a sozzled Winehouse leading a startled backing dancer to sing Valerie, taking her shoe off for no apparent reason, and giving up halfway through Just Friends in order to introduce the band – whose names she struggles to remember.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Audience members have inundated YouTube with clips from the concert showing a sozzled Winehouse leading a startled backing dancer to sing Valerie, taking her shoe off for no apparent reason, and giving up halfway through Just Friends in order to introduce the band – whose names she struggles to remember.
Read the full story at the Guardian
John Galliano faces racism trial in Paris
The extent of British designer John Galliano's long-term addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs is expected to emerge on Wednesday as he stands trial in Paris for racist insults against three people.
The flamboyant couturier, who is in a rehabilitation centre in Europe after treatment for addiction in the US, will attend the Paris criminal court hearing in front of three judges.
Read the full story at the Guardian
The flamboyant couturier, who is in a rehabilitation centre in Europe after treatment for addiction in the US, will attend the Paris criminal court hearing in front of three judges.
Read the full story at the Guardian
The inside track . . . on negative thoughts
When you're feeling down and stuck in a negative cycle of thoughts, feelings and actions, an important first step is to go out and do something new.
Cutting yourself off from friends and family is a natural response to feeling blue, but isolation just exacerbates the negativity. Doing something that's out of your usual routine, however small – taking a brisk walk every day, phoning a friend or joining colleagues at coffee break – could prove to be the turning point you need. Taking control of the situation you're in by changing your behaviour gives a sense of empowerment and challenges that overriding feeling of helplessness. When you behave differently, others then respond to you differently, and the cycle of negativity begins to be broken.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Cutting yourself off from friends and family is a natural response to feeling blue, but isolation just exacerbates the negativity. Doing something that's out of your usual routine, however small – taking a brisk walk every day, phoning a friend or joining colleagues at coffee break – could prove to be the turning point you need. Taking control of the situation you're in by changing your behaviour gives a sense of empowerment and challenges that overriding feeling of helplessness. When you behave differently, others then respond to you differently, and the cycle of negativity begins to be broken.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Extreme waxing
The trend for hairlessness is interesting to me because it's evolved throughout my awkwardly formative years. In the late-90s Brazilians were discussed gigglingly in glossy magazines as a painful one-off for the glamorous sex-person; in the last five years specialist waxing salons have reported a tenfold increase in business. Aside from the issue of ingrown hairs, some have noted problems with where this might lead. Five years ago, as Brazilian waxes became more common, demand for labial plastic surgery increased, then for "vaginal rejuvenation", perhaps the creepiest of the rejuvenations.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
Dating website for beautiful people dumps 30,000 members
It was meant to be a dating website exclusively for the use of "beautiful men and women", where members ruthlessly selected and excluded those who did not match their definitions of good looks.
But last month when BeautifulPeople.com was attacked by a computer virus, some claim standards slipped and around 30,000 new members gained admittance. Now, in a move which has made those rejected "apoplectic" with rage, they have been unceremoniously booted off at a financial cost of more than $100,000 (£62,000) to the site's operators.
Read the full story at the Guardian
But last month when BeautifulPeople.com was attacked by a computer virus, some claim standards slipped and around 30,000 new members gained admittance. Now, in a move which has made those rejected "apoplectic" with rage, they have been unceremoniously booted off at a financial cost of more than $100,000 (£62,000) to the site's operators.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Faith-based fashion takes off online
Online retail is big business. According to the British Retail Consortium, online sales account for 8% of the UK's retail sector – worth £23bn a year. Besides being a godsend for white goods and electronics, internet shopping is perfect for lovers of fashion, and religious women are no exception.
Professor Reina Lewis and her colleagues at the London College of Fashion have been researching Modest Dressing, which refers to women who "dress in a way that satisfies their spiritual and stylistic requirements for reasons of faith, religion or personal preference".
Read the full story at the Guardian
Professor Reina Lewis and her colleagues at the London College of Fashion have been researching Modest Dressing, which refers to women who "dress in a way that satisfies their spiritual and stylistic requirements for reasons of faith, religion or personal preference".
Read the full story at the Guardian
Harriet Harman: 'You can't leave equality to the Tories'
Harriet Harman returned recently from Egypt with a warning that conservative forces there are using the revolution to turn back the clock on women's rights. In the UK, the same has been said about the cuts agenda of the current government. By rights, the deputy Labour leader should be furious.
Yet she seems ebullient. Could it be that she is enjoying opposition, despite a year in which the coalition has announced cuts to some of the causes she has long held dear: childcare, Sure Start, support for victims of domestic and sexual violence, and benefits?
Read the full story at the Guardian
Yet she seems ebullient. Could it be that she is enjoying opposition, despite a year in which the coalition has announced cuts to some of the causes she has long held dear: childcare, Sure Start, support for victims of domestic and sexual violence, and benefits?
Read the full story at the Guardian
Chris Huhne is right – green 'red tape' can be good for business
There is a great deal of debate these days about the real David Cameron. Is he a genuine moderniser with a strong personal commitment to green issues battling skilfully to contain a nasty right wing? Or is he simply a superior PR man who has successfully cloaked his, and his party's, unreconstructed Thatcherism in a soft green miasma?
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
The supreme court's free pass on sexism for Walmart
Let's get this right: the world's biggest boss, supported by companies as diverse as Altria, Bank of America, Microsoft and General Electric and backed up by the godfather of big business (the US Chamber of Commerce) has persuaded the US supreme court that thousands of women workers can't possibly share enough of an interest to constitute a class?
It's hard to know which part of the court's decision in Dukes v Walmart hurts equity most: the assault on class-action jurisprudence generally, at a time of shrinking tools for workers seeking redress, or the defeat of history's biggest gender-based claim before a court that, for the first time, includes two women, one of whom (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) made her reputation in sex discrimination law.
Read the full story at the Guardian
It's hard to know which part of the court's decision in Dukes v Walmart hurts equity most: the assault on class-action jurisprudence generally, at a time of shrinking tools for workers seeking redress, or the defeat of history's biggest gender-based claim before a court that, for the first time, includes two women, one of whom (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) made her reputation in sex discrimination law.
Read the full story at the Guardian
The fiscal case for legalising marijuana
Marcy Dolin, of Rohnert Park, California, smokes eight joints (marijuana cigarettes) every day, and eats a marijuana cookie before he goes to bed every night. He prefers the peanut-butter cookies.
A 71-year-old man who has struggled with multiple-sclerosis for over half his life, Dolin is not the typical drug user often parodied in popular culture. He does not smoke recreationally, but rather because marijuana is the only thing that takes away the pain and stops the muscles spasms.
"Without [marijuana], I would be living on morphine and other horrible drugs. I couldn't do that to my family," he recently told the New York Times. "That's no life, and I would have ended it. That's the truth."
Read the full story at the Guardian
A 71-year-old man who has struggled with multiple-sclerosis for over half his life, Dolin is not the typical drug user often parodied in popular culture. He does not smoke recreationally, but rather because marijuana is the only thing that takes away the pain and stops the muscles spasms.
"Without [marijuana], I would be living on morphine and other horrible drugs. I couldn't do that to my family," he recently told the New York Times. "That's no life, and I would have ended it. That's the truth."
Read the full story at the Guardian
America's epidemic of over-prescribing
Even considering remarkable technological advances – organ transplants, robotic surgeries, lasers, electronic medical records – the greatest difference in American medicine since the 1970s is the increase in the number of medications prescribed to patients today. To treat chronic diseases and control symptoms, the average American takes about 12 medications annually, compared to seven, 20 years ago. Patients who once came into the office carrying their medications in a purse, or pocket, now need a shopping bag.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
Brian Haw sacrificed his life for peace
Brian Haw was a man of principle and a man of action who took his campaign against the Iraq war to Parliament Square opposite the House of Commons and stayed there for years, talking on his loudspeaker, and to many people throughout the world who came to see him.
His little encampment, which included his tent and many placards, became for a while the real alternative to the view expressed in parliament. Every MP on the way to work would pass Brian and know he was always there and understand what he was saying.
Read the full story at the Guardian
His little encampment, which included his tent and many placards, became for a while the real alternative to the view expressed in parliament. Every MP on the way to work would pass Brian and know he was always there and understand what he was saying.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Internet daters are all beautiful people
Internet dating is a good thing. It helps people make connections where previously they might have struggled. Countless couples have been bought together thanks to websites, many going on to marry and have babies. While some might sneer, internet dating has surely added to the overall happiness of the world, and made certain there aren't so many lonely people about.
On the other hand, it does throw up some really, really irritating news stories, such as the one that emerged this week from a website that invites users to "browse beautiful profiles of men and women without sifting through all the riff raff".
Read the full story at the Guardian
On the other hand, it does throw up some really, really irritating news stories, such as the one that emerged this week from a website that invites users to "browse beautiful profiles of men and women without sifting through all the riff raff".
Read the full story at the Guardian
Ciudad Juarez is all our futures. This is the inevitable war of capitalism gone mad
War, as I came to report it, was something fought between people with causes, however crazy or honourable: like between the American and British occupiers of Iraq and the insurgents who opposed them. Then I stumbled across Mexico's drug war – which has claimed nearly 40,000 lives, mostly civilians – and all the rules changed. This is warfare for the 21st century, and another creature altogether.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
This doublethink on absent fathers will hurt mothers
Cameron's Father's Day admonition to men who refuse to pay for their deserted children was the perfect example of his own brand of doublethink. He wrote in the Sunday Telegraph: "It's high time runaway dads were stigmatised and the full force of shame was heaped upon them. They should be looked at like drink-drivers, people who are beyond the pale. They need the message rammed home to them that what they're doing is wrong: that leaving single mothers, who do a heroic job against all odds, to fend for themselves simply isn't acceptable." Fathers must support their children "financially and emotionally", even if they are separated from them. Who would disagree? All governments have tried hard to make absent fathers pay. So far, so sensible.
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
Family-friendly festival? Be afraid, be very afraid
It was half-past three on a muggy Sunday afternoon and I was flailing between suffocation, sickness and epiphany under a small marquee in a West Country field. In the baby-changing tent at the family-friendly Camp Bestival, the atmosphere was not just sticky and stifling, but also filled with a poisonous, sweet miasma; a sepia-toned fug that needled at every pore of my body.
It was there that I had the revelation, as clear as the curls of gas escaping from the bins of blown nappies; if I was 10 years younger, the thought ran, this would be so much easier – and easy is better than complicated. Indeed, one of the many unbidden pieces of advice I received before becoming a parent – on the subject of keeping kids entertained – was simply to "keep it simple". Contrary to this brilliant nugget of truth, the festival seemed inordinately complicated; a logistical nightmare that became perfectly mirrored in my reaction to it.
Read the full story at the Guardian
It was there that I had the revelation, as clear as the curls of gas escaping from the bins of blown nappies; if I was 10 years younger, the thought ran, this would be so much easier – and easy is better than complicated. Indeed, one of the many unbidden pieces of advice I received before becoming a parent – on the subject of keeping kids entertained – was simply to "keep it simple". Contrary to this brilliant nugget of truth, the festival seemed inordinately complicated; a logistical nightmare that became perfectly mirrored in my reaction to it.
Read the full story at the Guardian
The long road to prison reform
In what has become a febrile political climate, a 50% discount on sentences for people making early guilty pleas was never going to be an easy sell. Ken Clarke did not help his cause by getting into an argument over rape on BBC Radio 5 Live last month. As is sometimes the case with the justice secretary, an engaging, if blokeish, self-confidence comes across as arrogance or complacency.
Read the full story on the Guardian
Read the full story on the Guardian
Adult sexting tied to power, 'unlimited partners'
Though research exists into so-called "sexting" by teens, including a widely publicized study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in 2009, studies on the sexting and online flirtation habits of adults are much more sparse.
Read the full story at USA Today
Read the full story at USA Today
What Science Tells About Power And Infidelity
On tonight's All Things Considered, NPR's science correspondent Shankar Vedantam takes on a subject we've been covering quite a bit lately: Powerful people caught up in sex scandals.
But Shankar wanted to get at a question that's been the talk around the water cooler: Why does it seem that the one embroiled in a sex scandal is always a person in power and always a guy?
Read the full story on NPR
But Shankar wanted to get at a question that's been the talk around the water cooler: Why does it seem that the one embroiled in a sex scandal is always a person in power and always a guy?
Read the full story on NPR
How common is infidelity, anyway?
Monogamy has had better weeks. Not that fidelity has had many good weeks in recent years, given the visibility of famous philanderers, but this latest political sex scandal had me seriously reconsidering whether monogamous marriage is realistic. But that was an emotional response, not a rational one -- so I decided to go out in search of actual facts.
Read the full story at Salon
Read the full story at Salon
Awkward! Why We Have Sex Dreams About Random People
In a perfect world, dreams would always depict our lives at their very best. We’d be wildly rich and successful, have magic powers, and sleep with the hottest people anytime we wanted. Instead, we often dream of nudity in public, paralysis in the face of danger, and having sex with people we don’t even look twice at in real life. The latter is especially disconcerting, since it makes us wonder if there’s actual desire lurking somewhere in our unconscious minds. (Thanks a lot, Freud.) And then we feel flustered and slightly shamed when we encounter the subjects of our erotic dreams in real life, as if they know of their leading-role status in our nighttime fantasies. But if we’re so disgusted by the idea of having sex dreams about these people, to the extent that we’re uncomfortable in our waking hours, it begs the question: why do we have sex dreams about people we’d never do—or want to do—the deed with?
Read the full story at Lovely Caroline
Read the full story at Lovely Caroline
A-List star pays $5 million to gag sex partner he knowingly infected with herpes
An international male celebrity who 'knowingly' infected their victim with herpes in a Las Vegas penthouse has reportedly paid them $5 million to stop the case going to court.
The settlement came after the victim, not described as male or female, issued a lawsuit against the star claiming damages of $20million.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
The settlement came after the victim, not described as male or female, issued a lawsuit against the star claiming damages of $20million.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Why this pop-porn will damage a generation of children
The recent final of Britain’s Got Talent was broadcast at 7.30 pm on a Saturday evening, featured two finalists who were 11 and 12 years old, and was watched by millions of children of about the same age or even younger.
Yet the producers still thought it appropriate that the guest-star Nicole Scherzinger, formerly of the raunchy band the Pussycat Dolls, was dressed in a knicker-skimming mini-dress, bumping and grinding her hips suggestively through her latest hit, while singing ‘Come on baby, put your hands on my body . . . right there’.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Yet the producers still thought it appropriate that the guest-star Nicole Scherzinger, formerly of the raunchy band the Pussycat Dolls, was dressed in a knicker-skimming mini-dress, bumping and grinding her hips suggestively through her latest hit, while singing ‘Come on baby, put your hands on my body . . . right there’.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
I'll bring up baby my way, Myleene tells 'Breastapo'
TV presenter Myleene Klass has attacked critics who make modern mothers feel guilty if they stop breastfeeding early.
The 33-year-old warned of the damaging criticism women face from the 'Breastapo' if they opt to bottle-feed their babies.
Miss Klass, who is still breastfeeding her 11-week–old daughter Hero, said: 'I breastfeed for my family, not to pacify the Breastapo.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
The 33-year-old warned of the damaging criticism women face from the 'Breastapo' if they opt to bottle-feed their babies.
Miss Klass, who is still breastfeeding her 11-week–old daughter Hero, said: 'I breastfeed for my family, not to pacify the Breastapo.
Read the full story at the Daily Mail
Chinese official's affair goes very public
A Chinese official and his lover decided the best place to conduct their affair was over a micro-blogging service, blissfully unaware of the public nature of tweeted messages.
The couple, both of whom are married to other people, set up micro blogging accounts and followed each other, unaware that every message was being shared with the rest of the world. At one point the Mr. Xie, who heads up a local sanitation bureau in Southern China, even asks his mistress to avoid using SMS or phone calls, and offers to claim her expenses from his office, according to messages translated by the Penn-Olson blog.
Read the full story at the Register
The couple, both of whom are married to other people, set up micro blogging accounts and followed each other, unaware that every message was being shared with the rest of the world. At one point the Mr. Xie, who heads up a local sanitation bureau in Southern China, even asks his mistress to avoid using SMS or phone calls, and offers to claim her expenses from his office, according to messages translated by the Penn-Olson blog.
Read the full story at the Register
Police probe Twitter child abuse images
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre is investigating a Twitter account displaying child sex abuse images.
Twitter has made much of not bowing to the UK courts when it comes to coverage of super-injunctions, but abuse images normally get less support from freedom of speech advocates.
Read the full story at the Register
Twitter has made much of not bowing to the UK courts when it comes to coverage of super-injunctions, but abuse images normally get less support from freedom of speech advocates.
Read the full story at the Register
Refusal to unveil scuppers French refusal-to-unveil trial
A burqa-clad woman yesterday rather brilliantly exposed a fatal flaw in France's ban on the traditional Muslim garb when she attended court to face a charge of "covering her face in a public place", and then simply refused to take off her burqa for the hearing.
The 31-year-old mum, identified only by her first name Hind, was arrested in Meaux back in May after travelling from Paris for an anti-ban protest. She and fellow defendant Najet were summoned to appear before the local court, and the former took the chance to mount a protest scuppering the proceedings.
Read the full story on The Register
The 31-year-old mum, identified only by her first name Hind, was arrested in Meaux back in May after travelling from Paris for an anti-ban protest. She and fellow defendant Najet were summoned to appear before the local court, and the former took the chance to mount a protest scuppering the proceedings.
Read the full story on The Register
Barbara Windsor to front series on female comics
Former EastEnders and Carry On star Barbara Windsor is to front a new Radio 2 series celebrating female comics.
The six-part series will look back at the lives and careers of both British and US funnywomen, including Hattie Jacques and Lucille Ball.
Read the full story on the BBC
The six-part series will look back at the lives and careers of both British and US funnywomen, including Hattie Jacques and Lucille Ball.
Read the full story on the BBC
Living the Good Lie
Denis Flanigan isn’t hiding anything. A 42-year-old psychotherapist in Houston, he has a straightforward manner that meshes nicely with his no-nonsense buzz cut and neatly clipped goatee. Unlike many mental-health professionals, Flanigan puts personal items on display in his office, including a photo of his partner, who is attractive, and male. For his patients’ amusement he has on hand an S-and-M Barbie as well as a Tickle Me Freud doll. (“It’s so, so . . . wrong,” Flanigan told me, in a tone that signaled he believed it was exactly right.) Flanigan’s no-secrets policy extends to his Web site, where he writes that he “has frequently been asked to speak on the gay and lesbian experience and mental health, transgender concerns and body-modification issues.” A member of the American Psychiatric Association, Flanigan has also served as Mr. Prime Choice Texas, winning a contest “designed for men 40 years or older who represent the masculine aesthetic embraced by the leather/Levi/uniform/fetish community.” In his own words, he identifies as a “militant homosexual.”
Read the full story at the New York Times
Read the full story at the New York Times
Multiculturalism – the great divide
Last month, an unexpected rise in net migration was a major blow to the Conservatives' plans to reduce migration to the UK, raising debate about whether the coalition's policies on work and migration were workable. But beyond the number games loom questions about the mosaic formed by the now established communities that make up the fabric of our multicultural country – and how well we all get along.
Read the full story at The Guardian
Read the full story at The Guardian
Cornrows? Non-traditional? What rubbish
This week, St Gregory's Catholic Science College in Harrow, London, went to court to defend its right to exclude a 12-year-old boy for wearing cornrows. Headmaster Andrew Prindiville claims that his ban on cornrows "plays a critical role in ensuring that the culture associated with gangs of boys in particular – eg haircuts, bandanas, jewellery, hats and hoodies – has no place in our school". In his statement to the court, he added: "What I am saying is that if we were to permit the wearing [of] any particular non-traditional haircut, such as cornrows, this would lead to huge pressure to unravel the strict policy that we have adopted, and which is a vital part of our success in keeping out of our school influences which have no place there – gang culture and pop culture."
Read the full story at the Guardian
Read the full story at the Guardian
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