Article here. Excerpt:

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - More than 20 South African boys have died over the past week during coming of age rituals, police said on Thursday, and they blamed botched circumcisions as the likely cause of death.

Northern Mpumalanga province's police department has opened 22 murder cases but no arrests have been made so far, spokesman Colonel Leonard Hlathi said.
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Deaths are often caused by blood loss or infection when circumcisions are poorly performed by traditional practitioners.

Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane this week called the recent deaths "regrettable".'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The new task force includes a cross-section of faculty, students and staff who regularly deal with sexual harassment and assault, including counselors and coordinators who handle rape prevention education, student complaints and investigations. There is a law enforcement representative and a university attorney, as well as a professor who does research on violence against women, a member of a feminist student group and the director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer center on campus.
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Already, differing opinions began to emerge Wednesday. Several members said there should be some recognition that women are disproportionately affected by sexual violence and that a “fair and balanced” standard may not work in a society where men and women are not always treated equally.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'For probably as long as it has existed, alimony has been a man vs. woman thing. Men get ordered to pay, women get alimony and men get bitter. But as women have become more economically powerful, the game has changed.

In 2012, a new law came into effect in Massachusetts that abolished permanent alimony and set up a formula for future payments. Some men there had been paying for decades to women to whom they’d only been married very briefly. While Massachusetts is the front runner, several states, especially Florida, are rethinking the way alimony is awarded.

Should men still have to pay alimony when women can now be educated and make (almost) as much as men? What about women who live with another guy but still take alimony? What do women who pay alimony think? And if we abolish alimony, how do older women without job skills get by?'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Forget “binders full of women” — the IRS’s persecution of hundreds of tea party groups is the real war on women. I co-founded the movement in my hometown of St. Louis and have travelled the country with various tea party groups and I’ve seen it first hand: the tea party movement was predominately led by women. It isn’t a slight to our men; in speech after speech I mentioned how the nation’s men have been neutralized in this fight by the left’s ridiculous identity politics and bunk sexism claims. I’ve opined more than once “My husband can’t hit a girl, but I can.” It’s the truth — and it’s why women raised up from around the country to lead the charge.

That’s why this IRS scandal is all the more stunning. If the left can claim that Romney’s “binders full of women” remark is indicative of a festering female hatred on the right, if they can claim that the demand for grown women to pay for their own preventative pregnancy sexual recreation pills is a sign that conservatives hate women, then the IRS going all Spanish Inquisition on groups of a female-led movement is the war of all wars on women.'

Article here. Video summary:

'Male MPs show "every type of patriarchal behaviour" said the shadow public health minister as she spoke about her speech on men to the Demos think-tank.

Diane Abbott claimed society and the economy had changed in ways which challenged issues around masculinity.

She debated her speech and ideas - and whether there should be a minister for men - with Ian Collins from LBC, former Labour pollster Deborah Mattinson and Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Tackling men's issues in this way requires the women's sector to share the gender equality pie. It also means allowing for a greater diversity of viewpoints, which will ultimately challenge the dominance of feminist thinking in the gender equality sector.

Faced with this eventuality, it is inevitable that women's groups and feminist thinkers will resist attempts to target the problems that men and boys face and try to shift the focus back on to the problems that men and boys cause.

If the Labour party is to tackle Britain's "crisis of masculinity" it will need to face up to the crisis that tackling men's issues creates for feminism. The best way for Labour to do this is by remaining true to the values of its own equalities legislation that allows for men's and women's issues to be addressed in an equitable and proportionate way.
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Cruddas got it right when he said we mustn't let negative perceptions about a minority of fathers shape policy for the majority. If the rest of the party – including Labour feminists – can apply that thinking to all men's issues, we may move a step closer to tackling the "crisis of masculinity".'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Arkansas enacted legislation, Act 1156, concerning child custody presumption in divorce cases. It specifies that in an action for divorce, an award of joint custody is favored in Arkansas.

Obviously, National Parents Organization would prefer a presumption of joint custody. But, this is a step. The legislation also stipulates that if one of the parents "demonstrates a pattern of willfully creating conflict," the court may change a joint custody order to a primary custody order and award that custody to the nondisruptive parent.

The act defines joint custody as, "the approximate and reasonable equal division of time with the child by both parents."'

On Tuesday, Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) released the ground-breaking report, "Prosecutor Bias and Misconduct in Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Cases:" http://www.saveservices.org/downloads/Prosecutor-Bias-Misconduct-in-Domestic-Violence

The SAVE report reveals that prosecutors often engage in zealous practices that erode constitutional guarantees of due process of law and probable cause. It also shows that despite the fact that half of domestic violence is perpetrated by women, the vast majority of those arrested and charged are men. Such gender-biased charging policies are unconstitutional.

Section 101 of the Violence Against Women Act addresses STOP formula grants - STOP stands for Services, Training, Officers, and Prosecutors. One-quarter of the STOP funds go to support prosecutors.

Let's make sure that prosecutors who receive VAWA funding do their jobs fairly. Please contact Attorney General Eric Holder today:

• Email: askdoj-at-usdoj.gov
• Phone: 202-353-1555

Ask AG Holder, politely, to implement appropriate oversight procedures to assure VAWA grant recipients are not engaging in misconduct or gender bias in domestic violence cases.

Thanks so much!

Teri Stoddard, Program Director
Stop Abusive and Violent Environments
www.saveservices.org

P.S. Want to do more? Tell your representative. Find them here: http://www.house.gov/

Last Thursday the US Dept. of Education (DED) and Dept. of Justice issued a joint decision that:

1. Expands the definition of sexual harassment on college campuses to include any sexually-related conduct that is “unwelcome”
2. Expands the definition of “conduct” to include “verbal conduct”, i.e., speech
3. Removes the “reasonable person standard” and substitutes the “he hurt my feelings” standard

The effect of these changes is to mandate a speech code that severely abridges college students’ First Amendment rights, in addition to the worrisome restrictions on due process protections for students accused of sexual misconduct.

Since the Dept. of Education issued its Sexual Assault Directive in April 2011, over 100 editorials critical of the policy have been published: http://www.saveservices.org/camp/ded-directive/ded-editorials/ And less than one week after the DED/DOJ announced their decision, 22 more editorials blasting the decision have come out – see listing below.

For more information on the DED Sexual Assault Directive, visit our website at: http://www.accusingu.org/

Organization site: http://www.lw4sp.org/

'WHAT'S THE PURPOSE?

"Women and men are made to complement each other, and more importantly, Children Need Both Parents. Millions of women, be they grandmothers, sisters, mothers, aunts and wives, have silently suffered the loss of children they love and care deeply about as a result of misguided laws and family court practices. It is our aim to change this system that each year unjustly removes millions of children from the arms of a loving parent. The first step is endorsing the statement below. The next step is inviting your friends and family members to do the same."'