U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy, Jr. dismissed a federal lawsuit filed against Japan for war crimes involving the conscription of up to 200,000 Asian women from Korea, China, Taiwan, and the Philippines to be sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II. Citing the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and other international treaties, Kennedy determined […]
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed in an unusual opinion to review en banc the three-judge panel decision in Planned Parenthood of Columbia/Willamette, et al. v. American Coalition of Life Activists (ACLA), et al., also known as the “Nuremberg Files” case. In this groundbreaking case, the court ruled in 1999 that “WANTED” posters and […]
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved NuvaRing, a new birth control method for women that can prevent pregnancy for a month at a time. NuvaRing, a flexible ring about three inches in diameter, is inserted into the vagina where it releases a continuous dose of estrogen and progestin. These hormones are the same ones […]
President Bush today announced $295 million in new humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and Afghan refugees, making his total aid package $320 million. The President stated that “America will stand strong and will oppose the sponsors of terror, and America will stand strong to help those people who are hurt by those regimesÉ.We have great compassionÉfor […]
A new government report released by the Kenya Family Health Programme recommends the repeal of Kenya’s anti-abortion laws. Stating that the medical evidence in favor of legal abortion was more compelling than the “perceived moral and legal need” for the current laws, the report, prepared by a Health Standards and Regulatory Services Department appointed team, […]
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee began its hearings on the nomination of Eugene Scalia, son of ultra-conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, to be Solicitor of Labor, the third-ranking official at the Department. As Solicitor, Scalia, a labor lawyer from Washington whose clients have mostly been employers not workers, would be responsible […]
Production of heroin in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan provides the Taliban with its main source of revenue that is then diverted to terrorist networks inside of the country, including Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network. Experts estimate that drug trafficking provides the Taliban with several billion dollars worth of income per year. Since September 11, the export […]
Afghans in Kandahar, the base of the Taliban regime, are fleeing into Pakistan or into remote villages in Afghanistan for fear of U.S. retaliation and possible conscription into the Taliban militia. According to refugee reports, Taliban soldiers began forcibly recruiting men and boys of all ages to take up arms, going so far as to […]
The House of Representatives has produced its own anti-terrorism bill, the Provide Appropriate Tools to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (PATRIOT) Act. This bill defines a terrorist act as certain crimes (such as bombing and threats to use chemical weapons) done with the motive to influence or change the government, and grants the government additional powers […]
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled unanimously in favor of National Organization for Women (NOW) in NOW v. Scheidler, the civil case where anti-abortion extremists were found to have conspired to illegally close women’s reproductive health clinics, using threats and extortionate acts against doctors, clinic employees and patients, in violation of the Racketeer […]
Speaking at the Labor party’s annual conference in Brighton, England, British Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged that Britain would not only be a part of a military coalition against the Taliban, but also a part of a humanitarian coalition. Acknowledging the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan as well as the deplorable living conditions […]
The Bush Administration urged Congress to pass by Friday legislation that would significantly increase the federal government’s criminal investigation authority. The proposed legislation would allow the government to detain non-citizens suspected of terrorist activity for an unlimited time, trace internet use as it currently traces telephone use, make it illegal to financially support someone or […]
Aware of the harsh Afghan winter rapidly approaching and pre-famine conditions, the Bush administration announced today $100 million in new Afghan relief aid. However, this is only a fraction of the $538 million requested by U.N. agencies to provide emergency assistance for Afghan refugees. To meet the U.N. appeal to donor nations, some 40% must […]
As governments around the world attempt to address the growing AIDS epidemic, many misguided policies are being in put in place. For example, Swaziland recently ordered women to refrain from having sex for five years and wear long tassels at the back of the neck in order to proclaim their abstinence. Women are also no […]
Micheal Guest, a career foreign service officer and openly gay man, was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Romania after becoming the first openly gay man to be confirmed by the Senate to serve as an ambassador. Guest’s easy confirmation is in stark contrast to the nomination of James C. Hormel as U.S. Ambassador to […]
It’s been said that girl power is Africa’s own vaccine against HIV, and that should be true for the whole world,” stated Kofi Annan, secretary general of the United Nations, during the organization’s first-ever Special Session on HIV/AIDS in late June. But it was the global women’s movement that successfully pushed to turn that rhetoric […]
“The women of Rio Negro, some of them pregnant, were dragged from their homes, and along with their children, were raped, tortured, and killed. “The soldiers and the (paramilitary civil defense) patrollers started grabbing the girls and raping us,” recalls Ana, one of a handful of survivors of the massacre.”–as stated in a collection of […]
Feminists around the country are celebrating the first anniversary of the approval of mifepristone for use in the United States as an early abortion option. Medical abortion with mifepristone has the potential to expand access to abortions in the US since many doctors who do not currently perform surgical abortions have said that they would […]
Mary Hutto was so frugal she lived in the hallway of the boardinghouse she owned. Upon her death, she gave $3.5 million to her alma mater, Western Kentucky University. Hutto amassed her fortune while making a living as a teacher both in Florida and in her native Kentucky. The endowment will give 70 students approximately […]
The Taliban announced to farmers earlier this week that they may return to opium production if the United States attacks. The Taliban had placed a ban on opium production in 2000 declaring it was “un-Islamic,” but many experts speculated that was just to drive the price up from $30 per kilogram to $500 per kilogram. […]
