Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Election observer says Russian election was “undemocratic”

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Summary of story from RFE/Radio Liberty, December 9, 2011 Armenian opposition deputy Zaruhi Postanjian, who observed Russia’s controversial parliamentary elections, has called them “undemocratic” and criticised Armenia’s government for welcoming the results. Ms Postanjian, of the opposition Heritage party, said she visited two dozen polling stations in Moscow on the December 4 election day and [...]

Midwife is CNN Hero of the Year for work in Indonesia

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Summary of story from CNN, December 12, 2011 Robin Lim, an American woman whose health clinics have helped thousands of poor Indonesian women have a healthy pregnancy and safe birth, was named the 2011 CNN Hero of the Year yesterday. Lim's Yayasan Bumi Sehat health clinics offer free prenatal care, birthing services and medical aid [...]

Women in Formula One: more pioneers

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Summary of story from CNN, December 12, 2011 A former Olympic skier who competed at three Winter Olympics, Britain’s Divina Galica discovered Formula One driving after being asked to compete in a celebrity race for sports people – and came second, having never even raced before. And that race kick-started her into a new career. She [...]

Residents driven from Libyan town in “collective punishment”

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Summary of story from BBCNews, December 12, 2011 The 30,000 residents of the Libyan town of Tawergha, 50 km from Misrata, have been driven from their homes in what appears to be a collective punishment for alleged crimes including rape and sexual torture. From March to May this year, Colonel Gaddafi's forces laid siege to Misrata [...]

Nepal’s female fighters give up their guns

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Summary of story from IPSNews, December 8, 2011 Hundreds of women combatants who joined the People's Liberation Army (PLA), an underground militant group set up to abolish the Nepalese monarchy, are putting aside their weapons five years after the end of the insurgency. Many Maoist women warriors joined the PLA, attracted by the promises of [...]

Argentinian feminists follow in pioneer’s footsteps

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Summary of story from WomenNewsNetwork, December 11, 2011 A century ago, feminist pioneer Julieta Lanteri became the first woman to vote in Argentina. In 2011, as Cristina Fernandez begins her second term as Argentine President, "Julieta's new revolution" continues. Decades before Eva Peron pushed for the 1949 law that recognised the right of all women [...]

First female soldier in team engaging Afghan women dies

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Summary of story from LA Times, December 11, 2011 A 24-year-old American has become the first female soldier to die who was part of an elite team sent to Afghanistan to engage women. Army 1st Lieutenant Ashley White, from Ohio, was tasked with interviewing Afghan women after American forces secured a compound outside Kandahar. She was killed [...]

‘Towards Gender Justice’ conference held in India

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Summary of story from The Hindu, December 11, 2011 A gender equality conference held in the south Indian city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu yesterday looked at salaries, division of labour and violence against women in India. The conference, ‘Towards Gender Justice’, heard from a wide range of speakers, and workshops on politics, the media, law [...]

Red hot fares and red hot sexism

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Ivana Davidovic WVoN co-editor “I am not included in the price of your ticket,” says a fictional air-hostess, played by Christina Ricci, to a customer with roving hands in the new TV series Pan Am. The programme is supposed to be an historical depiction of the early years of air travel. By now we have moved [...]

Bullies could face charges after domestic violence law review

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Summary of story from The Daily Mail, December 12, 2011 Under proposed new domestic violence laws, anyone in the UK exercising 'coercive control' over their partner could be prosecuted. The review could mean laws to fight threatening behaviour, emotional abuse, 'economic control' and the manipulation of children by both men and women. They could also extend to include [...]

What are birth control manufacturers hiding?

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Summary of story from Jezebel, December 6, 2011 Drug manufacturer Bayer AG withheld from the US regulators findings made by company researchers of increased reports of blood clots in users of its ‘Yasmin’ birth-control pills, according to the former head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In a document presented in a federal court [...]

Last minute deal in UN climate talks agreed

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Summary of story from BBCNews, December 11, 2011 The United Nations climate talks held in Durban, South Africa, last week (see WVoN coverage) ended with a last-minute deal, struck after the talks ran 36 hours over their scheduled close. The president of the talks, South Africa’s International Relations Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, said that the meeting [...]

Call for gender equality in heart disease treatment

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Summary of story from Huffington Post, December 7, 2011 Singer, actress and director Barbra Streisand wants to draw attention to, as she says, “an outrageous gender inequality that women face in the treatment of heart disease.” Although heart disease has traditionally been referred to as a man’s disease, since 1984 more women have died annually [...]

One third of patients stop breast cancer drugs due to side-effects

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Summary of story from BBCNews, December 9, 2011 A third of breast cancer patients stop their medication because of severe side-effects, a US study suggests. Of 686 women surveyed by Northwestern University, 36 percent stopped taking aromatase inhibitors (see WVoN story) because of joint pain, hot flushes, weight gain and nausea. The study, presented at the Annual [...]

Adele becomes first female to win trio of Billboard awards

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Summary of story from the Independent, December 11, 2011 The British soul singer Adele became the first female singer to win a trio of awards in a single year from Billboard, a music industry weekly magazine. At the culmination of a hectic period that has seen the earthy Londoner crack America, Billboard, considered by some the [...]

Was female revolutionary, Celia Sanchez, Castro’s lover?

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Summary of story from BBC News, December 11, 2011 Few doubt that the female revolutionary Celia Sanchez played a key part in the life of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, but just how intimate the two of them really were is a debate still going on, 30 years after her death. Sanchez was at the heart [...]

The quiet revolution in West Yorkshire

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Summary of story from the Daily Mail, December 10, 2011 Outside the police station in the small Victorian mill town of Todmorden, West Yorkshire, there are three large raised flower beds. The police station carrots — and thousands of vegetables in 70 large beds around the town — are there for the taking. Locals are [...]

Armed societies a threat to women

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Summary of story from IPSNews, December 9, 2011 Kairobis Arcia, 25, died from a bullet to her head shot by her husband, Oswaldo Mendoza, 32, who said he was blinded by jealousy in an argument fuelled by alcohol and drugs. Her murder was just one of the more than 468,000 homicides a year that occur [...]

Bosnia war victims applaud new Jolie film

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Summary of story from Radio Liberty, December 9, 2011 Hollywood star and social activist Angelina Jolie took her directorial debut, the film ”In The Land Of Blood And Honey”, to its most critical audience recently, and the reception was one of gratitude and respect. Jolie presented the film, an intense, dark drama about a couple torn apart by the [...]