Article here. Excerpt:

'A young woman was seriously emotionally unstable when she falsely claimed she had been raped, counsel for 20-year-old Sarah Louise Jenkins, unemployed, told the Dunedin District Court yesterday.
...
Mr Miller acknowledged the complaint had been "disturbing". But although it caused difficulties for the young man, it was "at the low end". The defendant was truly sorry for what she had done. She was having ongoing counselling and was stable at present, Mr Miller said.

Judge Michael Crosbie told Jenkins the victim had gone through "a very bad situation" as a result of the false allegation. He had liked her, although he knew she had "issues".

Then it seemed her friends became involved and made threats against him. Although angry and upset about what happened, the victim had since "moved on", the judge said.'

Article here.

'Left Party members of a Swedish county council said they want to encourage men using the council's toilets to sit during urination.

The Left Party in Sormland said it wants the Sormland County Council to pass a motion requiring toilets reserved for stand-up urination to be labeled, Swedish news agency TT reported Monday.

The party said sit-down urination is more hygienic and reduces the risk of bathroom users having to negotiate their way around puddles en route to the toilet.

The supporters of the motion said sitting during urination also has medical benefits, including reducing the risk of prostate problems and leading to a healthier and longer sex life.

Viggo Hansen, a substitute member of the council and author of the motion, said he wants it to eventually lead to sitting-only bathrooms.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'All women of childbearing age could benefit from being routinely screened for intimate partner violence, a government-appointed panel of experts said today.

Whether or not women have any signs or symptoms of abuse, they would be screened under the proposed recommendation released today by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

An estimated 1.3 to 5.3 million women yearly experience violence at the hands of their partners, though these numbers are likely underestimates, because such violence often goes unreported, according to research cited by the panel.

If a screening test revealed a woman to be the victim of intimate partner violence, she should be referred for an intervention, according to the draft.

Brian Banks was a 16-year-old star high school football player when he was falsely accused of rape by a female acquaintance. Ten years later, after spending over five years in prison, he was recently exonerated.

Banks now looks forward to playing for the Seattle Seahawks...and telling his story. Planning on producing a documentary, he writes, "I hope my story can serve as a catalyst for change."

Using kickstarter, Banks needs to raise $40,000 by June 28. He has received $11,369 as of this writing. Banks: "I am asking from the deepest part of my heart, will you help me? I will not be able to do this without you."

With reference to this petition, MANN admins received the following:

'Hey, everyone. Thanks for signing. We reached our goal of 500 signatures and then some thanks to you.

Unfortunately, Silverthorne Clinic is not responding so, I'm asking you to send them an email (info-at-highcountryhealth.com), write them a letter (265 Tanglewood Lane Ste E-1, Silverthorne, CO 80498), or call them (970.468.1003) to let them know that you want them to stop performing infant circumcision. Thank you for your continued support.'

Remember, please be polite and avoid any nastiness regardless of how you contact them. Just let them know you are aware of the effort to petition them to stop performing routine neonatal circumcisions, that you support it, and you want them to stop doing it. That's all.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The United Nations is increasingly concerned at the spread in Europe of "baby boxes" where infants can be secretly abandoned by parents, warning that the practice "contravenes the right of the child to be known and cared for by his or her parents", the Guardian has learned.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which reports on how well governments respect and protect children's human rights, is alarmed at the prevalence of the hatches – usually outside a hospital – which allow unwanted newborns to be left in boxes with an alarm or bell to summon a carer.
...
"There is growing evidence that it is frequently men or relatives abandoning the child, raising questions about the mother's whereabouts and whether she has consented to giving up her baby," he said. "You also have to ask whether an anonymous drop allows the authorities to check whether there's a chance for the baby to remain with its family in the care of other relatives."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Delaying fatherhood may offer survival advantages, say US scientists who have found children with older fathers and grandfathers appear to be "genetically programmed" to live longer.

The genetic make-up of sperm changes as a man ages and develops DNA code that favours a longer life - a trait he then passes to his children.

The team found the link after analysing the DNA of 1,779 young adults.
...
Experts have known for some time that lifespan is linked to the length of structures known as telomeres that sit at the end of the chromosomes that house our genetic code, DNA. Generally, a shorter telomere length means a shorter life expectancy.

Like the plastic tips on shoelaces, telomeres protect chromosomal ends from damage. But in most cells, they shorten with age until the cells are no longer able to replicate.

However, scientist have discovered that in sperm, telomeres lengthen with age.

And since men pass on their DNA to their children via sperm, these long telomeres can be inherited by the next generation.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Police chief David Ainsworth, under investigation for alleged sexism, including commenting on a female colleague’s “nice buttons”, was found hanged after convincing himself his force was “gunning for him”, an inquest was told.

Mr Ainsworth, 49, the deputy chief constable of Wiltshire, was removed from his duties after up to 24 allegations emerged against him from female colleagues.

The officer, who earned £110,000 a year, was accused of looking at one woman in a tailored blouse and commenting: “Nice buttons.”

He feared he would lose everything and was found hanged at his cottage in Potterne, Wilts, in March last year. Jo Howes, his girlfriend, told the inquest yesterday of a conversation less than a month before his death.

“David was very distressed and outlined why he thought he had nothing left to live for,” she said. “He thought his employer was gunning for him and he did not know why.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Parental alienation is a hotly disputed topic among some members of the legal and mental health communities.

The American Psychiatric Association is debating whether or not to include parental alienation as a mental health syndrome in its 2013 revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or the DSM-5.

Those in favor of recognizing parental alienation as a mental disorder claim it would result in fairer decisions from family courts and enable child victims to get treatment and eventually reconcile with their estranged parent.

Those who oppose inclusion in the DSM-5 claim that parental alienation is junk science, or an unproven concept that abusive husbands use to draw attention away from their behaviors.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'NOW Foundation opposes the inclusion of the so-called PAS/PAD in the DSM-5 under any name or category. The American Psychiatric Association is soliciting final comments on the revisions to the DSM-5 by June 15. We encourage you to send messages to the APA via their interactive website. Tell the APA that you oppose the inclusion of the so-called parental alienation syndrome in DSM-5 in ANY FORM. Please make sure to emphasize the fact that the American Bar Association has determined PAS to be inadmissible in court because it does not meet evidentiary standards. Accusations of PAS protect real abusers at the expense of women and children who have already been victimized.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'NEW YORK (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused his estranged wife, Mary, of abusing his children from an earlier marriage, including stealing items from his young daughter, showing up uninvited on trips he took after they separated and sometimes calling him dozens of times a day, according to a legal filing revealed Sunday.

Mary Kennedy killed herself last month at the family's estate in Bedford, N.Y. Robert Kennedy filed for divorce two years ago, and the case was pending when she died. The couple married in 1994 and had four children together.

Portions of a confidential affidavit filed in 2011 in the divorce case were posted online by The Daily Beast (http://bit.ly/LCcOY4 ) as part of a cover story in Newsweek magazine on newsstands Monday about Mary Kennedy that was written by Kennedy family biographer Laurence Leamer. A spokesman for the site declined to comment on how the affidavit was obtained.'

Article here. What would have been the sentence if a male teacher was convicted of having sex with 4 underage girls? Judges, male or female, always apply a double standard. Interesting comments at the bottom. Excerpt:

'A teacher who began an affair with an underage student just two months after getting married has been jailed for five months.

Rachel Farrell was accused of having sex with four students in the months after her marriage in June 2010.

But after three of the teens refused to co-operate with a police investigation the 26 year old was charged with one count of underage sex.

Farrell, who has since been divorced by her husband, pleaded guilty to corrupting a minor.
...
She then surprised Judge Giodarno by telling him she thought the sentence of five months in jail and three years probation was correct.

After the hearing, Mills said he will appeal the sentence, adding that the district attorney's office did not specifically request jail time for Farrell.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Michigan Legislature has sent Gov. Rick Snyder bills that would give biological fathers some rights to their children, even if the mothers were married to other men at the time of a child's birth.

The current 1956 law presumes that a woman's husband is the father of her children, making the husband responsible for their support and denying parental rights to the biological father.

Lawmakers last week passed measures extending rights to biological fathers, and the proposals are awaiting Snyder's signature. A phone message about the governor's intentions on the bills was left with a spokeswoman Sunday.
...
Under the bills, a man who asserts a claim of fatherhood could bring legal action to gain paternal rights to the child, even if another man is already being acknowledged as the child's father.
...
The Michigan branch of the National Organization for Women opposed the bills.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'No man is invincible, especially when it comes to health. Learn to detect and defend against the cancers most likely to attack men, and you'll be able to take the disease head-on if it strikes--and increase your chances of beating it.'

1. Prostate
2. Lungs
3. Colorectal
4. Bladder
5. Lymphoma

Article here. Excerpt:

'Last week, the Senate voted on the Paycheck Fairness Act, Democrat-created legislation that would have allegedly insured women are paid equally to men. Democrats cited statistics indicating women only make 77% as much money as men do as justification for the new legislation. The Senate voted down the legislation basically along party lines, with Republicans and a handful of Democrats voting against it.

Color me confused. Didn't President Obama sign the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 to address that exact problem? Is this new legislation an admission that Ledbetter was ineffective, or what? Plus, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was implemented nearly fifty years ago to address the same problem, as was Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prevented sex discrimination. Were all those pieces of legislation also ineffective? What's going on here?'