Story here. Excerpt:

'IVYBRIDGE Fathers 4 Justice activist Jolly Stanesby was today jailed for two months for a rooftop protest at the home of Deputy Prime Minister Harriett Harman.

Fellow protestor Mark Harris, of Elford Crescent in Plympton, was given a conditional discharge.

Members of the group, which had disbanded in September of this year, said they would be staging further protests on the Minister's roof and at the Prime Minister's home in Kirkaldy & Cowdenbeath within the week to protest at what they described as a 'politically conceived show trial.'

Spokesman Mark Harris said: "I am shocked that Mr Stanesby has been imprisoned and know that fellow campaigners will be taking his place on Miss Harman's roof within days if not hours. The court has made a serious error in committing him to prison and in doing so incited angry dads to take further direct action."'

----
Ed. note: You can leave messages for Jolly here.

Story here. Excerpt:

'After weeks apart, an emotional Guy Ritchie was reunited with his sons Rocco and David at a London airport this morning.

The director's children were back on English soil after being whisked away to the US by Madonna, who is in the throes of her Sticky and Sweet tour.

But as Guy held his two boys close for the first time in weeks, his estranged wife tightened her grip from the other side of the Atlantic.

The Mail has learned that the 50-year-old has issued a list of demands that Ritchie must meet while the children are with him in London. It includes a ban on TV, non-organic food and clothes not sent by her.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Laura Sjoberg, a professor of political science, weighed in on her theories of how violent women are treated differently than violent men last night. She took a few minutes to sit down before her lecture to give an overview of her research into the gender gap between men and women in the area of global political violence.

Q: Now what is the most important focal point of your lecture, if you could possibly sum it all up?

A: The focal point for the lecture is that violent women are treated in the media and scholarly accounts as if, first, they don't have any agency in their violence and, second, that violent women are no different from real or "normal" women who are still innocent and peaceful and pure.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'In 1999, at Boston College, associate professor Mary Daly refused to enroll two male students into her “Introduction to Feminist Ethics” class, because she believed that a male’s presence would interfere with the female students’ learning. There was a large backlash against Daly, and she eventually agreed to retire.

Within UC Santa Cruz’s feminist studies department, although significantly outnumbered by women, men do major in feminist studies.

Timothy Clark is a third-year feminist studies major and a teacher’s assistant for “Intro to Feminist Studies.” He is also the only male in his TA seminar. Clark acknowledges that there are still stereotypes about studying feminism.
...
“As a man, to be involved with feminist studies, you have to be very open to the idea that you’re the privileged people, and you have to be willing to be uncomfortable some of the time,” Clark said. “Men are generally the dominant voice in society. Feminist studies is trying to change that. It’s working toward a more equal and just society.”

Story here. Excerpt:

'A SCHOOLTEACHER accused of ordering a student to abuse her and treat her as his sex slave has been sent for trial.

Melbourne Magistrate's Court yesterday heard claims Nazira Rafei, 26, did the 15-year-old boy's maths test for him and threatened his grades if he called the relationship off.

"Disrespect me. Say shut the f--- up to me and stuff like that," the boy claims Ms Rafei told him during a tryst in her car.

"Say I'm your sex slave."

Ms Rafei, a married science and maths teacher, pleaded not guilty to sexual penetration of a child under 16 under her supervision or authority and four counts of committing indecent acts.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'ANGOLA - An Angola woman accused of paying an undercover police officer $50 to have her estranged husband killed has pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in an agreement with prosecutors.

Mollie Krontz, 45, was arrested in July 2007 after police said she met with Indiana State Police Detective Mark Heffelfinger and gave him $50 with a promise of $150 more that August.
...
Though Krontz didn't have detailed plans about how her husband should be killed, she did suggest that he be shot, police said.

Krontz remains free on a $100,000 bond. A sentencing hearing is set for Jan. 12.'

---

Ed. note: This is Angola, Indiana in the US, not the country of Angola.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Some ardent feminists have launched a campaign to block Lawrence H. Summers, former President Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary, from taking the same post in the Obama administration. In raking up old controversies, they threaten to deprive the new government, in the midst of a deepening financial crisis, of the services of a star economist who led the way to a budgetary surplus and a rare reduction in the national debt. Settling old scores is no way to face a dangerous and uncertain economic future.
...
Mr. Summers has apologized repeatedly, perhaps too much. He was taking part in a discussion of a real problem in the failure of women to go farther in the scientific professions. He was simply raising the question of whether discrimination against women was entirely to blame. If such questions can’t be asked, for fear of retribution far out of scale to the query, such longstanding problems won’t be resolved. This shortchanges everyone, not just the group that appears to be getting left behind.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'IOWA CITY - The majority of violent crimes are committed by men, but the majority of men are not violent, University of Iowa graduate student Jerrod Koon says.

Getting those men to speak up against violence, especially violence against women, is the key to changing the problem, said Koon, coordinator of the Men's Anti-Violence Council.

Like-minded UI students, faculty and staff attended an open house last night hosted by the new group. About 25 people mingled during the first hour of the two-hour event.

UI freshman Sterling Martin, 18, heard about the open house from a friend, and after getting some information, said he thinks he would like to volunteer with the group. He can see where young college men might be hesitant to join an anti-violence group if they think it is about "taking away their masculinity."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'INCIDENTS OF domestic violence against men have more than doubled in the last nine years, with police called to more than 6000 incidents in 2007-08 in which men were assaulted or threatened, according to figures obtained by the Sunday Herald.

The true number of attacks is likely to be far higher, however, as research has repeatedly found men are far less likely to report domestic abuse than women.

And while the Scottish government has spent tens of millions of pounds in recent years to support female victims of domestic abuse and violence, it has not directed a single penny to support men who suffer at the hands of their partner.
...
"Anecdotally, we are aware the number of men reporting is probably the tip of the iceberg," he added Capaldi acknowledged "there's no equivalent for men of Women's Aid", but cases to Glasgow's dedicated domestic violence court can refer victims to the Assist support service, which "takes a gender-neutral approach".'

Story here. Excerpt:

'But on Monday, 30 former agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation took up the cause of four sailors, known as the Norfolk Four, who were convicted in a 1997 rape and murder.

Arguing that DNA and forensic evidence points to a prison inmate who has confessed as the sole perpetrator of the crimes, they called on Gov. Tim Kaine to pardon the sailors.

“After careful review of the evidence we have arrived at one unequivocal conclusion: The Norfolk Four are innocent,” said Jay Cochran, a former assistant director of the F.B.I. and former special agent who served at the bureau for 27 years. “We believe a tragic mistake has occurred in the case of these four Navy men, and we are calling on Governor Kaine to grant them immediate pardons.'”

Article here. Excerpt:

'GENEVA (Reuters) - Women still lag far behind men in top political and decision-making roles, a waste of talent given that their access to education and healthcare is nearly equal, the World Economic Forum said on Wednesday.

Averaging 130 national scores, the report found that girls and women have reached near-parity with their male peers in educational attainment, health and survival, in both rich and poor countries.

But economically, in terms of workforce participation and earning opportunities, and politically, in terms of empowerment, the gap between the sexes remains large.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'ATLANTA — For the first time, an expensive vaccine aimed at preventing cervical cancer in women has proven successful at preventing a disease in men, according to a new study.

The disease? It's genital warts, a sexually-transmitted problem that is embarrassing and uncomfortable but not life-threatening.

Still, the results are expected to bolster a likely bid by the vaccine's manufacturer _ Merck & Co. Inc. _ to begin marketing the vaccine to boys, experts said. Merck plans to ask the government for that approval later this year.

"This opens the door to a wonderful opportunity to prevent illness," said Anna Giuliano, a Tampa-based researcher who worked on the Merck-funded study. She is an epidemiologist at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa.'

Looks more like a shortage of suckers to me, and that's a good thing. Story here. Excerpt:

'LONDON - Britain is facing a sperm donor shortage after reversing confidentiality laws and limiting the number of women who can use sperm from one donor, fertility experts warned Wednesday in the British Medical Journal.

Britain in 2005 changed the law protecting anonymous sperm donors and allowed children to learn the identity of donor fathers — one reason, fertility experts say, there are fewer donors now.
...
In France, sperm donation is anonymous and the government covers donors' expenses but the country still faces a sperm shortage. France registered 248 sperm donors in 2006, according to the country's Agency of Biomedicine — a level an official there said was not enough to supply demand.'

What's next, "fertility flights" where would-be single mums fly into New York from Heathrow every week for an insemination until "it takes"? Good grief. Wouldn't put anything past anyone these days.

Story here. Excerpt:

'FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A 15-year-old student died after a shooting at a Fort Lauderdale high school Wednesday, and police were questioning another student believed to be responsible.

Sophomore Amanda Collette was confirmed dead after being discovered on a hallway floor by a school resource officer at Dillard High School around 11 a.m. Another 15-year-old girl was being held and questioned by police in the death.
...
The suspect was apprehended at an area restaurant after a caller there reported she may have been involved in a school shooting. A gun was recovered.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'MADISON, Neb. - A Norfolk woman who had a sexual relationship with a teenage boy and subsequently fled from the area has been sentenced to prison for child abuse.

Tammy Walnofer, 39, was sentenced by Madi­son County District Court Judge Patrick Rogers on Monday to 18 to 26 months in prison, with credit for 16 days served.
...
Walnofer's attorney, Jim Egley of Norfolk, described the victim as demanding attention and threatening to harm himself or others if Walnofer did not com­ply with his wishes, which included having sex.
...
Rogers said that in his experi­ence as a judge, it's common for defendants to lay blame on oth­ers. "Just because I have a robe on doesn't mean I have God-like power to know what exactly hap­pened here," he said.'