Federal officials announced that investigations of the Alabama clinic and three Atlanta bombings will be merged into the Southeast Bombing Task Force. The Task Force will combine the recourses of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and state and local agencies in Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina. The Task […]
Daniela Owen, director of the World Food Programme (WFP) sub-office in Herat, near the Afghanistan border, says that the Taliban’s decree forbidding most women from working outside their homes is obstructing WFP work. Owen said, “The Taliban are not letting our staff monitor our projects.” Although the WFP staff members revised their work methods so […]
Women in the remote village of Malicounda Bambara, Senegal have banned female genital mutilation (FGM). The village, approximately 40 miles from Dakar, is the first community in Senegal to prohibit FGM. Thirteen villages surrounding Malicounda have since prohibited the practice. The women decided to ban FGM after taking classes offered by the government, religious groups, […]
Women whose husbands had recently been murdered in a December massacre demonstrated in front of the Mexican Senate, protesting the death threats and sexual harassment resulting from the women’s and their husbands’ political beliefs. The women said that the government was ignoring the harassment claims and their demands to release Zapatista prisoners. A demonstrator said, […]
Defense Secretary William Cohen declined a recommendation to segregate men and women during military training and instead called for the Navy, Air Force and Army to institute “corrective measures” intended to decrease the mistreatment of women. Cohen said, “We are not going to tolerate the abuse of women in the military.” Cohen gave the services […]
Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney was sentenced to a reduction in rank and a reprimand for attempting to obstruct justice during a sexual misconduct trial. McKinney, who faced 18 charges of sexual misconduct and one charge of obstruction of justice, was acquitted of all sexual misconduct charges. Six women had testified against McKinney, claiming that he […]
Virginia Military Institute freshman, including 23 women, graduated from their long role as rats yesterday as they climbed to the top of a 30-foot mud hill that had been sprayed by fire hoses. This year’s rat line was the first to include women. Twenty-three women endured the school’s long-standing ritual of abuse, which includes push-ups, […]
The Justice Department is investigating reports that United States “sex tour” businesses are sending people overseas to have sex with children in violation of a 1994 law. The legislation bans travel with the intent of having sex with minors with penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment. Tour companies are offering tours of Southeast Asia […]
Women’s chances of being murdered by “intimates,” including current or former spouses or boyfriends, have risen since 1976, according to a Justice Department report, “Violence by Inmates.” The report said, “Intimate violence predominantly affects women as victims …. Violence by an intimate accounts for about 21 percent of the violent crime experienced by women and […]
Mary Shallenberger, principal consultant to California Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, has been elected the next national chair of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Shallenberger will take over at PPFA’s full membership meeting in December. She will fulfill her chair duties on her own time and will not receive pay for the position. Sen. […]
The Taliban militia group sent a letter to Sergio de Mello, the United Nation’s humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan, stating that they would no longer allow foreign Muslim women in the country unless accompanied by a close male relative. If the new law is enforced, U.N. programs for women and girls could face enormous setbacks. The […]
Sgt. Maj. Gene C. McKinney, the Army’s former top enlisted man, was acquitted of 18 counts of sexual misconduct by a military jury. McKinney was convicted on one count of obstructing justice in lieu of a telephone conversation in which he told an accuser to testify that no wrong-doing had taken place. The women who […]
A survey issued by USA Today found that women totaled only one-fourth of law clerks hired by the U.S. Supreme Court, around 5% of clerks were Asian, less than 2% were African-American, and even less were Hispanic. Investigators found an ‘old-boys club’ system of hiring law clerks, including hiring only Harvard, Yale or other elite […]
A jury of 13 United Methodist clerics found Rev. Jimmy Creech not guilty of violating church rules when he performed a marriage ceremony for two lesbian parishioners. Creech has been reinstated as minister of the First United Methodist Church in Omaha. Although the Methodist church’s “Social Principles” includes a 1996 order that ministers should not […]
The Food and Drug Administration announced its approval of an ultrasound machine that tests for osteoporosis. Women can place their foot into the Hologic Inc.’s Sahara Bone Sonometer. The sonometer then measures the density of the heel by sending high-frequency sound waves through the bones, and comparing the speed of the sound waves through the […]
Actress Delta Burke will be in D.C.’s Dupont Circle Crown Books on Wednesday to sign her new book, Delta Style: Eve Wasn’t a Size Six and Neither Am I. Burke is also launching a line of clothing for women sizes 14 to 26. The average woman in the United States is 5 feet 4 inches […]
A survey released by the VanAmburg Group, Inc. concluded that the majority of hungry people in the United States are white, female, very old or very young and working. Director of Tufts University Center on Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition Policy J. Larry Brown said, “The data run counter to almost every stereotype we have of […]
The Kenya chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Kenya) found that women suffer the most during ethnic conflicts. A fact-finding mission revealed that women living in and around areas of repeated civil conflicts experience increased violence, poverty and health and hygiene problems. FIDA-Kenya member Njoki Ndung’u reported, “There are many internally displaced people […]
A jury of United Methodist Church ministers will rule on charges that the Rev. Jimmy Creech disobeyed United Methodist Church rules when he performed a unity ceremony for two of his female parishioners. Rev. Loren Ekdahl said that the ceremony was an “unauthorized ritual conducted as if it were an official rite of the church.” […]
British prisons will release up to 150 sex offenders, including rapists and pedophiles, without supervision in the next two years. The release comes as a result of a loophole created by the British Criminal Justice Act of 1991, which requires people convicted of sex crimes after 1992 to be supervised after their release. Sex offenders […]
