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'Disgraced ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is seeking more than USD 1 million in a countersuit against the New York hotel maid whose accusation of sexual assault last year brought down his glittering political career.

The countersuit, signed Monday and made public Tuesday, seeks a minimum of USD 1 million, plus legal costs and undetermined punitive damages from the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, who is accused of "falsely and maliciously asserting" she was attacked.

The 18-page document accuses Diallo of malicious prosecution, abuse of process, false imprisonment, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

"Ms Diallo participated in the commencement and maintenance of a baseless criminal prosecution," the suit said, "and in doing so intended to injure Mr Strauss-Kahn."

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Teri Stoddard
Email: tstoddard-at-saveservices.org

SAVE Calls on Lawmakers to Stand Tall for Victims and the Constitution during Upcoming VAWA Vote

Washington, DC/May 15, 2012 – A leading victim-advocacy organization is calling on Representatives to support reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, H.R. 4970. Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) says H.R. 4970 will best help victims of partner abuse and safeguard Constitutional protections.

SAVE urges lawmakers to resist attempts to expand definitions of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault. Overly-broad definitions encourage false allegations of abuse and make it harder for true victims to be heard.

Since its passage in 1994, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has sparked controversy. The ACLU once termed VAWA’s mandatory arrest provisions “repugnant” to the Constitution, and in 2000 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a VAWA provision designed to provide a federal civil remedy for sex assault cases.

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'He was the spitting image of the killer, had the same first name and was near the scene of the crime at the fateful hour: Carlos DeLuna paid the ultimate price and was executed in place of someone else in Texas in 1989, a report out Tuesday found.
...
"Everything went wrong in this case," Liebman said.

That night Lopez called police for help twice to protect her from an individual with a switchblade.

"They could have saved her, they said 'we made this arrest immediately' to overcome the embarrassment," Liebman said.
...
"Unfortunately, the flaws in the system that wrongfully convicted and executed DeLuna -- faulty eyewitness testimony, shoddy legal representation and prosecutorial misconduct -- continue to send innocent men to their death today," read a statement that accompanies the report.'

Link here. Excerpt:

'Police in the UK have released video of a gumboot-clad woman attacking a cyclist on a quiet country lane in a bid to track her down.

The video shows the redheaded woman repeatedly kicking and striking the man after his slow pedalling held her car up.
...
The woman herself brought the attack to the attention of police, claiming she was the victim but giving them false contact details.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'He speculated that “Congress would get a lot more done” if more women were there. He speculated that, although no women signed the Constitution, “we can assume that there were founding mothers whispering smarter things in the ears of the founding fathers.”

He announced that “more and more women are out-earning their husbands. You’re more than half of our college graduates and master’s graduates and PhDs.” He told them that they are “poised to make this the century where women shape not only their own destiny but the destiny of this nation and of this world.”

And they can look good doing it! “You can be stylish and powerful, too,” he said. “That’s Michelle’s advice.” The first lady, the couple’s two daughters, and the president’s mother and mother-in-law had recurring roles as “strong, remarkable women” in the speech.'

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'CNN ran a large chunk of speech in the 2 pm hour Monday that included that passage, along with what followed, in the "don't let the media stop you for doing idealistic things" vein. Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank was the rare journalist to note the "founding mothers" crack. The Constitution is an "extraordinary document," said Obama:

Yes, it had its flaws — flaws that this nation has strived to protect (perfect) over time. Questions of race and gender were unresolved. No woman's signature graced the original document — although we can assume that there were founding mothers whispering smarter things in the ears of the founding fathers. (Applause.) I mean, that's almost certain.

And one reason many workplaces still have outdated policies is because women only account for three percent of the CEOs at Fortune 500 companies. One reason we're actually refighting long-settled battles over women's rights is because women occupy fewer than one in five seats in Congress.

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'The biggest goal of Keeling Pilaro's field hockey career happened far from an athletic field on Tuesday.

An athletics committee determined the 13-year-old boy can keep playing on the girls' varsity team at Southampton High School, at least for one more season. The decision at an appeals hearing Tuesday reverses earlier rulings that claimed Keeling's skills as a field hockey player, which he developed growing up in Dublin, Ireland, had developed to a level superior to those of girls.

"I was jumping up and down; I was so excited when I heard," the youngster said in a telephone interview about an hour after the decision was announced by an attorney for the athletics committee. "I can play!"

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'Marcell pointed to gaps in research, the absence of uniform clinical practice guidelines and care providers’ lack of knowledge as contributing factors to a health care environment in which male teens often don’t receive basic sexual and reproductive health care—services that he said should be standard in primary care settings. These include taking a sexual history, STI/HIV screening and testing, a sexual development physical assessment, including a genital exam, and discussion of the male role in contraception and STI/HIV prevention.

“I think the bottom line is there’s a major research gap,” said Marcell.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'The world-famous U.S. women's soccer player was in Sacramento on Monday with her Brazilian counterpart Sissi to be honored by the California Assembly as it recognized the 40th anniversary of Title IX.

The occasion prompted Assemblyman Chris Norby to reveal that he wasn't a fan of the 1972 federal law chiefly known for mandating gender equity in high school and collegiate sports. The Fullerton Republican said he thought Title IX had come at the expense of male athletes, particularly those who depend on sports scholarships.

"We need to be honest about the effects of what I believe are faulty court interpretations or federal enforcement of Title IX, because it has led to the abolition of many male sports across the board in UCs and Cal States," he said. "And that was never the intention of this, to have numerical equality. It was never the intention to attain equality by reducing opportunities for the men."'

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'Obviously, no sane person is "for" violence against women. But VAWA, originally passed in 1994, has always been about more than preventing violence and helping victims. Sponsored by then-Sen. Joseph Biden, the law was crafted largely by feminist groups and activists who viewed domestic violence and sexual assault as a male "war against women," an instrument for enforcing patriarchal oppression. While these activists are no doubt sincerely concerned with the welfare of women, this is a blinkered ideology that often creates more problems than solutions. Most research finds that substance abuse, mental illness and dysfunctional family dynamics are major factors in domestic violence—far more so than male dominance or sexist attitudes. Abuse is no less common among same-sex couples than among heterosexual ones.

Moreover, abusive relationships are often characterized by mutual violence, and in male-female relationships women are sole or primary aggressors much more often than is commonly believed.
...

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'A San Antonio woman who admitted to Child Protective Services investigators that she left her children unsupervised to go have sex with a 13-year-old neighbor was ordered Monday to serve deferred adjudication probation for aggravated sexual assault of a child.

Prosecutors had recommended prison for Amanda Ann Nabers, 26, who will have to register as a sex offender for life.

But she gave a full confession, she has already lost her children, her house and her job, and the victim's family was in favor of probation, defense attorney Carlos Martinez told state District Judge Juanita Vasquez-Gardner.
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Had Nabers been a man, she would more than likely be prison bound, but the wishes of the victim and his family play a large roll in determining the sentence, the judge said.'

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'BEAUMONT — Evetta Wright said she was puzzled when she got a call early Monday from her son.

Not long before, around 11:30 p.m. Sunday, she'd dropped Clifton “JR” Barkin off at his house after taking him to Wal-Mart to buy flowers and a Mother's Day card for Paige Parkerson, the mother of Barkin's two small children.

When she answered the phone, she said Parkerson was on the line.

“Paige told me she killed JR, that he was dead,” Wright said through sobs.

Wright said she sped back over to her son's house, but it was too late.

Barkin, 22, died just after midnight Monday in the backyard of his yellow rental house, stabbed several times. Wright said she believes Parkerson expected a more expensive gift, such as jewelry.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'I've been noticing news items lately about how women are gaining in many ways. They now represent a majority of U.S. college students, and 60% of all graduate students. Their income levels are rising, although they still don't have parity with men. They are far less involved in violent crimes, and crime of all sorts. They are safer drivers. A child in a single-parent home is likely to be better off if the parent is a women. In the U.S. the odds are that 80% of the single parents will be women; having given birth, they stick around to raise children, while men are more likely to be missing.

Article here. Excerpt:

'It is time for rational American women to repudiate the propaganda and indoctrination by the fanatical feminist fringe in this country, who dictate policy to our anemic legislators in Washington. I resent these radical groups' claims that they represent the demands of the majority of American women. These groups are responsible for the wussification of America by demonizing the role of men in our society.

They have convinced too many women that fathers are not necessary to raise children, contrary to studies that show the overwhelming cause of poverty and incarceration of young men in the U.S. stems from so many families headed by single mothers. For at least three decades, we have heard the incessant claims that women are capable, intelligent, independent, stronger and better than men.

However, when promoting feminist issues, these groups revel in hypocrisy by then claiming that women are weak, vulnerable and exploited victims.'

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'Statement of Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases National Institutes of Health

There is a growing consensus that we can significantly curtail the HIV/AIDS pandemic by implementing scientifically proven HIV prevention strategies, such as voluntary medically supervised adult male circumcision, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and treatment as prevention. With 2.7 million new HIV infections in 2010 alone, however, it is likely that controlling and ultimately ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic will require an effective vaccine as well. This past year, there have been a number of encouraging findings on this front.'