Friday, January 20, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

US home care workers earn same as teenage babysitters

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Summary of story from Women’s eNews, January 19, 2012 US President Barack Obama announced in a White House press conference at the end of December that he is planning to extend the rights of healthcare supoort staff under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Vicky Talag is a home health aide in New York and has [...]

UN targets women in plans for energy expansion

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Story of story from The Guardian, 19 January 2012 Access to energy is crucial to addressing poverty, and women should be the focus of plans to provide modern energy sources to those who lack it, the UN has said in a new report. The study found that bringing energy programmes to women and girls helps [...]

Iran attempts to curb dissent ahead of March elections

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Summary of story from Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, January 19, 2012 Iranian security forces arrested a journalist and blogger Parastou Dokouhaki on January 16 at her home in Tehran (see WVoN story). Two days later, journalist Marzieh Rassouli, who writes about cultural issues, was also arrested. They were both later charged with acting against Iran’s [...]

Egypt’s Brotherhood ignores abuse of women

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Summary of story from Bloomberg Businessweek, January 19, 2012 Arab women took the fight for freedom onto squares and streets across the Middle East and North Africa last year. From Tunisia, where revolts began, to Egypt and Libya, women rallied alongside men to bring down autocratic rulers. Now, they're fighting not to be pushed aside [...]

Women receive bone tests for osteoporosis ‘too often’

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Summary of story from Businessweek, January 19, 2012 Many women who are being screened for osteoporosis may not need it, according to a new US study. Osteoporosis, the illness that causes a loss in bone density, making them more susceptible to breaks, develops in fewer than 10 per cent of women aged 80, if they had normal [...]

Delay in adoption of women’s rights law in Pakistan

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Summary of story from Daily Times, January 19, 2012 Legislation to improve women’s rights could not be passed in the Lower House of the Pakistan’s Parliament on Wednesday (January 18) because the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the second largest party in the Parliament, requested more time to study the bill and to propose some amendments. [...]

Unsafe abortions ‘on the rise’ say health organisation

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Summary of story from BBC News, January 19, 2012 The number of women having dangerous abortions is rising, according to a study by the World Health Organization. Global abortion rates are steady, but the proportion of those being carried out without trained clinical help rose from 44 per cent in 1995 to 49 per cent [...]

Lebanese female prisoners find freedom through drama therapy

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Summary of story from CNN, January 18, 2012 Some of the 70 inmates of the female Baabda prison in Beirut, Lebanon, are accused or convicted of murdering their husbands, others of drug trafficking. Many of them have been victims of terrible circumstances themselves – forced to marry when they were still children, for years they [...]

Female US veterans struggling to find work

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Summary of story from wwlp.com, January 18, 2012 More than 20 per cent of female Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans in the US were unemployed during December, according to new statistics. The finding comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics who say that last year their jobless rates started at under 10 per cent. They say [...]

East Anglia University launches UK’s first course in women, Islam and media

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Summary of story from the Guardian, January 19, 2012 The University of East Anglia (UEA) has developed a 12-week module called women, Islam and the media in an attempt to bring together these highly debated topics and change the perceptions of Islam. The course, which was launched this week, will cover controversial subjects like veil wearing, [...]

Miriam O’Reilly leaving the BBC

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Summary of story from BBC News, January 18, 2012 A presenter who won a case against the BBC for age discrimination is leaving the company a year into a new contract. The ex-Countryfile presenter Miriam O’Reilly won an employment tribunal last January when she claimed she had been dropped from the show unfairly (see WVoN [...]

Danish Premier spells out plans for EU Presidency

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Summary of story from BBC Democracy Live, January 18, 2012 Danish Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, said her government’s presidency of the European Union (EU) would “advance Europe’s potential of peace, opportunity and prosperity.” Thorning-Schmidt was addressing members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in Strasbourg as Denmark took over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU [...]

Aung San Suu Kyi runs for Parliament in Burma

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Summary of story from Voice of America, January 18, 2012 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has registered to run for a parliamentary seat in an upcoming by-election. Suu Kyi is standing as a candidate to represent a district outside the main city of Rangoon. Her National League for Democracy [...]

Norway’s security chief, Janne Kristiansen, resigns

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Summary of story from Radio Free Europe, January 19, 2012 Norway's security chief, Janne Kristiansen, has resigned from office after disclosing classified information. Kristiansen breached confidentiality during a parliamentary hearing on January 18, including disclosing that Norway has intelligence agents in Pakistan. Norway is a close ally of the US and has hundreds of troops [...]

Turkish charity advises abused women to get guns

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Summary of story from The New York Times, January 18, 2012 The charity Sefkat in Turkey has published a brochure advising women facing violence on how to save their lives – including the suggestion of getting a gun and learning how to use it. Activists say they have had enough of violence against women which [...]

Uganda: women take place in sporting arena

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Summary of story from Daily Monitor, January 19, 2012 Women’s sport was hardly recognised in Uganda a few years back, but the tide is changing. The women’s football team, the Crested Cranes, took part in the African Women’s Championship – the first continental women’s football they have experienced for almost four years. And this is [...]

Scientist’s pioneering work exposes link between obesity and chemicals

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Summary of story from The Ecologist, January 12, 2012 A growing interest in the links between exposure to chemicals and obesity is a testament in part to the pioneering work of Dr Paula Baillie-Hamilton, who first published a paper linking chemical toxins to obesity in 2002. She talked to Ecologist journalist , Laurie Tuffrey, recently [...]