Both the Massachusetts House and Senate have passed bills that would require clergy members to report suspicions of child abuse, including sexual abuse, to civil authorities. Massachusetts clergy are currently not obligated to report evidence of abuse to the Department of Social Services. The House version of the bill, passed yesterday, would still exempt information […]
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) made two grants last week totaling $64,000 to the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs. These grants will be used to reconstruct the ministry’s building complex, the former site of the Afghan Women’s Institute in Kabul. The auditorium building in the complex was burned during Taliban rule in Kabul, […]
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the London-based relief agency Save the Children have uncovered widespread sex abuse of children in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea by aid workers. So far, 67 individuals from 40 different agencies have been implicated. The aid workers come from a variety of international and local nongovernmental […]
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Senator Dianne Feinsten (D-CA) voiced her opposition to U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering, Sr., nominated to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Feinstein expressed concern that Pickering would not be able to set aside his “very strong right-wing views,” and added, “there is no mandate to skew the courts […]
The expected Republican and Democratic nominees in the Ohio gubernatorial race have both picked black women to run as lieutenant governor on their respective tickets. Jeanette B. Bradley will run on the Republican ticket and Charleta B. Tavares on the Democratic ticket. Both women are councilwomen in Columbus, Ohio. A black woman has never been […]
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) will launch a new $285 million program to provide immediate and long-term humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. According to the WFP, their initiative will focus on “recovery.” Catherine Bertini, WFP Executive Director stressed that Afghanistan “will have to be rebuilt from the bottom up. The challenge for the humanitarian […]
In a “700 Club” segment that aired last Thursday regarding the political views of Muslim Americans, televangelist Pat Robertson characterized Islam as a violent religion stating, “Islam is not a peaceful religion that wants to coexist. They want to coexist until they can control, dominate, and then if need be destroy.” Robertson went on, “The […]
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan, announced yesterday that the U.S. is considering options for expanding the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, expressing concern over the continuing conflict between several rival factions in Afghanistan. Possible scenarios include expanding the small 4, 500 member international peacekeeping force currently responsible for the entire country to 25,000 […]
Convicted of sexually molesting a 10 year-old boy in 1991, defrocked Boston priest John Geogan was sentenced yesterday to 9-10 years in Massachusetts state prison. At his sentencing, Judge Sandra Hamlin stated, “This man hid behind his collar,” and called Geoghan’s action “reprehensible” and “depraved.” Geoghan, who denied the charges against him, had previously been […]
Nearly 270 women have been raped and murdered in Juarez, Mexico since 1993, yet Mexican officials are still no closer to finding their killers. Worse still, the murders have not stopped, and women are still at risk. The majority of victims, usually workers at U.S. owned assembly plants and factories, were raped and then strangled, […]
Poppy production is feared to be on the rise again in remote parts of Afghanistan. UK officials and customs agents report that farmers, lacking other means to support their families, have already planted poppy that will be ready for harvest in June. According to the Financial Times, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, and Italy are pushing […]
A group of anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in New York filed motions in court last week attempting to avoid disclosing their records to the New York Attorney General’s office. In January, New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer issued 34 subpoenas to CPCs in the state after receiving complaints from residents regarding misrepresentation of services […]
Wayne Pederson resigned as president of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) after being pressured by NRB leaders who voted to fire him in January. At issue were comments made by Pederson in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, in which Pederson accused television and radio evangelists of being “identified politically more than theologically.” Pederson continued, “We get […]
Four Afghan women journalists have begun publishing Woman’s Mirror, a weekly four-page women’s magazine “to improve the understanding and knowledge of Afghan women in our society,” according to editor Shukria Barekzai Dawi. The magazine has produced only three issues so far and makes only 1,000 copies per week, but according to a BBC report, demand […]
The Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire last week released the names of 14 priests suspected of sexually abusing children over the span of two decades to local prosecutors. Meanwhile, the Dioceses of Worcester, Massachusetts and Portland, Maine have recently announced that they would disclose the names of pedophile priests to parishioners, and the New York […]
Americans Jill Bakken and Violetta Flowers won the gold medal for the U.S. in the first ever women’s bobsledding event at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Nearly 15,000 spectators gathered for the event, and many were cheering for the Bakken and Flowers pair. Completing two runs in 1.37.76 seconds, Bakken and Flowers […]
The U.S. House will consider a bill that would allow churches to endorse political candidates and use funds to support election campaigns. The Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act, sponsored by Rep. Walter B. Jones, Jr. (R-NC), is backed by several reactionary religious groups, including James Dobson’s Focus on the Family and the Florida […]
Writing that homosexuality is “abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature,” Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court concurred with the Court’s decision to deny a lesbian mother custody of her children. “The homosexual conduct of a parentÉcreates a strong presumption of unfitness that alone […]
Guatemalan women face continual discrimination in maquilas, clothing factories, which routinely prevent women’s access to health care. A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, “From the Household to the Factory: Sex Discrimination in the Guatemalan Labor Force” chronicles how these maquilas target pregnant women for discrimination and deny them maternity benefits dictated by Guatemalan law. According […]
In an appearance on MTV yesterday, Secretary of State Colin Powell advocated condom use as a responsible way to prevent the spread of AIDS, diverging from President George W. Bush’s policies in favor of abstinence-only sex education. Powell said, “It is important that the whole international community come together, speak candidly about it, forget about […]
