Article here. Excerpt:

'Recent headlines announced a new AIDS vaccine that was said to show great promise. It was tested in Thailand and found to have a modest effect, 31 percent, on decreasing the acquisition of HIV. Within two weeks it was found that faulty statistical methods were used, and the findings are now in question.

A previous AIDS vaccine by Merck was removed from the market two years ago when it was found that not only was the drug ineffective, but in some cases it actually increased the chance of getting HIV.

Since 1989, multiple attempts have been made to develop an effective AIDS vaccine at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. All have failed, as the virus mutated and became resistant. As these futile attempts continued, 25 million men, women and children died of AIDS, mostly in Africa, but tens of thousands in the United States.'

Story here. How could a woman pull a 200-lb man out of a car? Excerpt:

'(CNN) -- Pro golfer Tiger Woods says he bears sole responsibility for an early-morning car accident, but state police said he has canceled a Sunday interview with investigators looking into the crash.

In a statement issued Sunday afternoon on his Web site, Woods offered no details of his Friday-morning wreck outside his Windermere, Florida, home except to say he suffered cuts and bruises and was "pretty sore."

"This situation is my fault, and it's obviously embarrassing to my family and me," he said. "I'm human and I'm not perfect. I will certainly make sure this doesn't happen again."

In his statement, Woods praised his wife, Elin Nordegren, whom he said "acted courageously when she saw I was hurt and in trouble." Nordegren told police she used a golf club to break out the rear window of the vehicle, then pulled Woods from the SUV after she heard the accident from inside their home.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Commonwealth countries are expected to make a landmark agreement on universal healthcare for almost one-third of the world's population, including free health care for women and children.

The agreement, reached at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago, comes after Prime Minister Gordon Brown's call at the United Nations in September for all developing countries to remove fees for healthcare, starting with services for women and children.

Britain will provide an additional £5 million for charities and non-governmental organisations to promote free health services for women and children in those Commonwealth countries where fees present the biggest barrier to treatment, on top of the £400 million that the UK already spends on improving health services in the 53-nation grouping.'

Men never get ill or injured, of course...

Article here. Excerpt:

'"Since India has not signed the Hague Convention, courts here have not really been enforcing judgments of foreign courts," said senior advocate Pinky Anand, who represented complainant V. Ravi Chandran, on whose petition the Supreme Court ordered the CBI to trace his son and former wife in India.
...
"India has been used as a haven or a refuge where you could defeat the law. Moreover, dowry laws are peculiar to the Indian legal system," said Anand. "Hopefully, this judgement would pave the way for foreign judgements to be enforced in India."

The Canadian High Commission told HT that its "consular officers at the department of foreign affairs and international trade and in India were currently managing 23 child custody, child abduction and child welfare cases".'

Article here. Is it a suprise that so many young women have a bad boy complex? Excerpt:

'From a male point of view, the only redeeming feature of the Twilight books and movies is the ammunition they provide against female claims of innate moral superiority over men.

Whenever a woman criticizes a man’s lust, aggression, shallowness or any other lesser angel of his personality, the quick-witted fellow can point to the millions of women addicted to the base, insipid, bad-boy-worshiping, misogynist syrup so many female viewers of all ages knelt to this past weekend, when The Twilight Saga: New Moon raked in $147 million at the box office, setting several records.

In the spirit of speaking truth to diamond-skinned power, enjoy this list of unfortunate lessons girls learn from Twilight. (The list operates under the principle that any grownup female who embraces Twilight’s junior-high dreck temporarily sacrifices her “victim card.”)
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'The unemployment rate for men, 11.4%, based on seasonally adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, outpaces the rate for women, 8.8%. We now have the largest jobless gender gap since tracking became possible in 1948. The gap reached its previous peak, 2.5 points, in 1967 and 1978. Today's gap has exceeded that for three months. It's endured at two points or above for an unprecedented length, eight months and counting.

As of the end of October, the U.S. had lost 7.3 million jobs in this Great Recession. Men account for 5.3 million of that loss. The shift is so dramatic that women now constitute 49.9% of the work force and will soon outnumber men.

So some have come to call this downturn the "he-cession." And yet, for all its unprecedented scope and nature, the limited attention and passive response it has received are remarkable. Imagine the outcry if women amounted to roughly three in four lost jobs in this recession.'

Story here. When it first broke yesterday on TMZ.com, there was some equivocation about the details. However as of Nov. 28 at 12:08 AM, they are reporting that they have a witness that says Woods stated his injuries were caused by his wife, and that her smashing his car windows was not to assist him after the crash, but to express her anger. Story:

'Tiger Woods did not suffer facial lacerations from a car accident. They were inflicted by his wife, Elin Nordegren -- according to a conversation Woods had Friday after the accident.

Tiger has yet to be formally interviewed by the Florida Highway Patrol -- that should happen this afternoon. But we're told Tiger had a conversation Friday -- with a non-law enforcement type -- detailing what went down before his Escalade hit a fire hydrant.

We're told he said his wife had confronted him about reports that he was seeing another woman. The argument got heated and, according to our source, she scratched his face up. We're told it was then Woods beat a hasty retreat for his SUV -- but according to our source, Woods says his wife followed behind with a golf club. As Tiger drove away, she struck the vehicle several times with the club.

Story here.

'PARIS — France is to pass a law banning "psychological violence within the couple" and study the idea of tagging violent partners to prevent them stalking their victims, the government said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon announced the measures in a speech to mark the United Nations' tenth International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, promising legislation in the first half of nest year.

"It's an important step forward: the creation of this offence will allow us to deal with the most insidious situations, situations that leave no visible scars, but which leave their victims torn up inside," he said.

"And we are going to experiment with electronic surveillance measures on the Spanish model to monitor the effectiveness of restraining orders against a violent spouse," he added.

Spanish judges now have the power to force convicted a wife-beater to wear a watch-sized electronic bracelet that triggers an alarm if he gets too close to his former victim and gives her a chance to call the police.

The headline 'Shredding Tackle' for those not in the UK is a feeble pun on 'wedding tackle' (i.e., a man's genitalia). Story here. Excerpt:

'A JEALOUS mum has been quizzed by cops - for allegedly ripping out her lover's testicles.

"Helen Hodge, 34, was accused of mangling Billy Duncan's privates with her bare hands after accusing him of cheating on her."
...
"A police source said: "The officers who dealt with it have never seen anything like it. A few of the guys were crossing their legs when word spread."'

Hilarious huh?

Story here. Excerpt:

'TERRITORY women of all ages want a female-only taxi service like the fleet of pink taxis launched in Mexico this month to be introduced in Darwin.

Thirty-five pink taxis driven by women to cater exclusively for female passengers have been introduced in the Mexican city of Puebla to cater for women tired of leering male drivers.

Each cab comes with a beauty kit, a GPS system and an alarm button.

And they refuse to stop for male passengers.

The idea has been catching on in cities from Moscow to Dubai.

And Darwin teenagers Corina Reid, Karlee Truscott and Abbie Burke say the NT capital should be the next place on the list to take up the initiative.'

----

Ed. note: Article dated Oct. 31, 2009, but better late than never.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Dogma is the salient characteristic of Labour's Equality Bill, the showpiece of last week's Queen's Speech and the special concern of Harriet Harman, the Leader of the House of Commons and Minister for Women and Equality.

Let's start with the problem that the Bill's provisions are meant to solve. Miss Harman insists that it is necessary in order to fight discrimination. Her primary example is the pay gap between men and women: the latter, on average, earn 26 per cent less than the former. But her conclusion – that this shows that women are being unfairly discriminated against – simply does not follow.

Story here. Excerpt:

'There was anger and dismay today after the Labour Party forced women-only shortlists on both the Wigan and Makerfield seats.

Against the majority of local members' wishes, a selection panel from the National Executive Committee insisted that positive discrimination was the way forward in the neighbouring constituencies.
...
One Wigan party member who declined to be named said: "This is scandalous, sexist and a big blow to democracy.

"We should be able to pick from all the available candidates purely on merit, not restrict ourselves because of their gender."

There was also puzzlement that the NEC had insisted on all-women lists in Wigan, Makerfield and several other constituencies, but had allowed open lists in Warrington South and Derby North.

A Makerfield Labour Party member said: "We can understand the need to increase the number of female MPs, but why have two all female lists in constituencies next door to each other while others are given a free hand?"'

Story here. Excerpt;

'A FEMALE music teacher who had sex with two students sobbed today as she was sentenced to more than four years jail.

Michelle Lynn Dennis, 33, had betrayed the trust of the students and shown little remorse, the Ballarat County Court heard.

Judge Susan Cohen said the Ballarat teacher's offending had been worse than that of Karen Ellis because she had sex with more than one student.

In 2005, Karen Ellis, a physical education teacher, was convicted of having sex with a student and jailed for two years and two months.

Dennis pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual penetration of a child under her care, supervision or authority and one count of sexual penetration of a child under 16.

Dennis denied the crimes until the day of her scheduled trial.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A FEMALE religious education teacher was jailed for 32 months today for having sex with a teen pupil she seduced on Facebook.

Mum-of-two Madeleine Martin, 39, admitted having an eight-day long sexual relationship with the 15-year-old in February.

Martin — who taught at a school in Greater Manchester — bought the lad gifts including a mobile phone and arranged for the pair to get tattoos together, a court heard.

They soon embarked on a sordid affair — driving to remote car parks and meeting at Martin's home for sex.

Martin, who is divorced with two teenage daughters, set up a Facebook account under a fake name to stop the relationship being discovered, the court was told.

A "mutual decision" by Martin and the boy ended the relationship in February — but two months later the teen told his parents who went to the police.

Jennifer Birch, prosecuting, told the court the teenager has since quit school because he "suffered taunting".'

Article here. Excerpt:

'We are witnessing the beginnings of a men's movement, with newly-formed groups of young men who have set out to find answers to the vexing question of how modern men are supposed to behave.

Two such groups have recently announced their existence and their purpose.

At Manchester University, there is MENS Society - Masculinity Exploring Network and Support.

Ben Wild, who's a history and politics student, has set up the group because he feels young men find it hard to live up to an idealised masculine role.

By that, I suspect he means it's not every guy who can shine on the rugby field, bring home top quality bacon and change a nappy, while rustling up a cordon bleu dinner and ironing a pristine shirt.

The truth is that, in 2009, men are every bit as as oppressed by unrealistic expectations and outdated stereotypes as women.'