News for Today

Contributed by Norhana Kamid

Women Selling Positive Pregnancy Tests Online

 

There’s a new online trend for pregnant women, who selling their positive pregnancy tests to other women, FOX 23 News reported Sept. 6. The positive pregnancy tests are then typically being used to "get back" at a loved one, or likely a former loved one. The average going rate for a positive pregnancy test on Craigslist is 20 dollars.  

 

 

Suspect Charged with Sexual Batteries and Home Invasion Captured

 

Charlie Christopher Bates was captured near the University of Florida following a police chase, The Tampa Tribune reported. Bates has been charged with a series of sexual batteries and home invasions at apartment complexes near the university on Sept. 6.

 

 

Nairobi Governor Slaps Female Protestor

 

Nairobi Governor Dr. Evans Kidero slapped Rachel Shebesh, a women's representative who joined striking council workers during a confrontation, Kenya's Standard Digital News reported Sept.6. The governor was agitated and lost his temper while the protestors voiced their discontentment about their low salaries.

 

 

Ariel Castro’s Family Claims His Body Post Suicide

 

The family of kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro, who hung himself with a bed sheet in an Ohio prison, is set to claim his body, NBC News reported Sept. 6. Following the discovery of a suicide note at Castro's house after his arrest in May, attorney Craig Weintraub said his client was initially placed on suicide watch while in jail but this was later downgraded. Castro's death is still under investigation by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

 

 

George Zimmerman's Wife Files for Divorce

 

George Zimmerman's wife, Shellie Zimmerman, filed for divorce Sept. 5, less than two months after her husband was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin and a week after she pleaded guilty to perjury in his case, Detroit Free Press reported Sept. 5. Zimmerman's brother, Robert Zimmerman, said an attorney for his sister-in-law is preparing to file paperwork to end the couple's marriage after six years.

 

  

The Royal Bank of Canada Appoints Kathleen Taylor as Chair

 

The Royal Bank of Canada, the nation’s largest lender by assets, extended the country’s lead in appointing women to corporate leadership roles by announcing Kathleen Taylor as its first chairperson, Bloomberg reported Sept. 5. Royal Bank said on Aug. 29 that Taylor, 56, will take over as chair in 2014, making her the first woman to lead the board of one of the nation’s top six banks. 

 

 

Wal-Mart Employee Fired for Mocking Muslim Women on Facebook

 

Terry Earsing, who worked at a Wal-Mart store in Hamburg, N.Y., has been fired for posting derogatory comments online about Muslim women, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported Sept. 5. Earsing posted a photo on Facebook of two Muslim women wearing traditional dress who were shopping in an aisle of the Wal-Mart where he worked with the caption “Halloween came early this year.... do they really have to f***in dress like that...your in my country ... get that f***in s*** off!!!!!” A Wal-Mart spokesperson told The Buffalo News Sept. 4 that Earsing was promptly fired after Wal-Mart learned of the incident.

 

 

Afghan Militants Kill Female Author at Her Home

 

Suspected Taliban militants in Afghanistan shot dead Sushmita Banerjee, an Indian author of "A Kabuliwala's Bengali Wife," which later became the basis for the 2003 film "Escape from Taliban," CBS News reported Sept. 5. The killing of Banerjee was the latest in a string of attacks on prominent women in Afghanistan, adding to the fear that women's rights in the country will recede even more after U.S.-led foreign forces fully withdraw in 2014.

 

 

Students at Canada’s Saint Mary’s University Cheer Underage Sex

 

Saint Mary’s University in Halifax is promising disciplinary action after a frosh week chant glorifying underage sex with girls without consent was posted on Instagram Sept.2, CBC reported Sept. 4. The 15-second video shows orientation week leaders on a crowded football field as they chant and they shout out, “Y is for your sister [...] U is for underage, N is for no consent [...] Saint Mary’s boys we like them young.” Students said the chant has been used at frosh week for years. Jared Perry, the student union president, called it an oversight and apologized.

 

 

Serena Williams Keeps World's No. 1 Title

Serena Williams smashed her way into the U.S. Open semifinals with a crushing "double bagel" win over Carla Suarez Navarro in the quarterfinals of the New York grand slam, CNN reported Sept. 4. The defending champion became the first woman since Martina Navratilova in 1989 to win a women's U.S. Open quarterfinal without losing a game.

 

 

Democratic Candidate Referred to as 'Empty Dress'

 

National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson Brad Dayspring has referred to Kentucky Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes as an "empty dress," U.S. News & World Report reported Sept. 5. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, said it seems almost impossible for the men in the Republican Party to open their mouths without insulting women.

 

 

Acid-Slay Femicide Case Uncovered in Italy

 

Marilia Rodrigues Silva Martins, a pregnant 29-year-old Brazilian, was brutally murdered near Brescia, Italy, last week, The Daily Beast reported Sept. 5. Martins' body was found Aug. 30 soaked in acid on the floor of the charter airline office where she worked as a booking agent. The police say her secret lover – 32-year-old pilot Claudio Grigoletto – is to blame.

 

 

Filmmaker Reveals Man as Leader of Femen in New Documentary

 

Victor Svyatski was exposed as the leader of the feminist group, Femen, The Global Post reported Sept. 4. In the documentary, "Ukraine is not a Brothel," filmmaker Kitty Green shows Syvatski's controversial techniques to gain media attention for Femen, including the handpicking of attractive women for topless protests. 

 

 

United Arab Emirates Launches ‘Flying Nannies’

 

United Arab Emirates’ Etihad Airways is offering a free nanny service, NBC News reported Sept. 4. The child care helpers will be available on all Etihad Airways’ long-haul flights for help with families with children or unaccompanied minors. The nannies will offer an extra pair of hands to help settle kids, provide age-appropriate games and activities or advice and support for frazzled parents. The program will be available to all travelers, regardless of flight class, and will expand to 500 fully trained Flying Nannies by the end of the year.

 

 

Taiwanese Playboy Sentenced to 22 years of Jail for Rape, Privacy Violation

 

Justin Lee, a 28-year-old socialite in Taiwan, has been sentenced by the panel of judges at the Taipei District Court to a total of 22 years and four months' jail on nine counts of non-consensual sex and 15 counts of privacy violation for filming himself having sex with multiple women, including celebrities, Singapore’s The Strait Times reported Sept. 4.

 

 

American Jailed for Inappropriate Behavior Toward 5 Women

 

Michael Sylvester Williams Jr., 24, was sentenced to nine months' jail for taking pictures of two women and outraging the modesty of three women in backpackers' hostels in Singapore, The Strait Times reported Sept. 4.

 

 

 

Hamas-Controlled Gaza Considers Allowing Women's Choice to Divorce

 

The Islamic-administered Gaza received a proposal from the more moderate neighboring West Bank to amend a law denying women's right to divorce without the consent of their husbands, Palestine-based Al Monitor reported Sept. 3. The supreme religious court head in Gaza, Hassan Al-Jojo, said he would possibly implement changes to the current divorce discourse by 2014.

 

 

First Female Editor of Life Magazine Dies at 74

 

Judith Glassman Daniels, the first female editor in chief of Life magazine, died of stomach cancer at age 74, the Associated Pressreported Sept. 3. Daniels' long career in publishing included helping to establish the Women's Media Group and Savvy, a magazine dedicated to women in business.

 

 

Malala Yousafzai Inducts New Library in England

 

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban for promoting education for girls, led the ceremonial opening of Birmingham's new library the BBC reported Sept. 3. Yousafzai currently resides in Birmingham after being treated in Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The library, designed by a woman to replace the less accommodating 1970s structure, furnishes a million books and offers public use multimedia spaces.

 

Diana Nyad Completes Historic Florida-Cuba Swim

Diana Nyad, 64, completed the first ever swim from Florida to Cuba, without a protective cage, CNN reported Sept. 4. Nyad is now planning to swim 48-hour marathons in U.S. cities that are recovering from recent disasters. 

 

 

Botswana Court of Appeals Ruling Supports Women's Right to Family Inheritance

 

Edith Mmusi and her three sisters won a court of appeals case to inherit their father's property in the Ngwaketse district of Botswana, reported Malawi's The Maravi Post Sept. 3. The unanimous judgment is contrary to years' past when male relatives were automatically entitled to the fiscal possessions of departed family members. Mmusi's brother had been vying for the property despite never having lived there. Justice Letedi, who wrote the court precedent, cited previous gender-dsicriminatory laws as outdated.

 

Women's Life Expectancy Improving But Rich-Poor Gap Widening

Life expectancy for women at 50 has improved but the gap between poor and rich countries is growing and could worsen without better detection and treatment of cardiovascular disease and cancers, the World Health Organization (WHO) says in a new study,NBC News reported Sept. 3. The WHO study found that in wealthier countries deaths from noncommunicable diseases has fallen dramatically in recent decades, especially from cancers of the stomach, colon, breast and cervix. Women over 50 in low and middle-income countries are also living longer, but chronic ailments, including diabetes, kill them at an earlier age than their counterparts. 

Doctors Miss Signs of Heart Problems When Women Are 'Well-Dressed'

Cardiologists said too many doctors are missing crucial signs of heart problems in women in U.K. because many of those at risk were well-groomed and looked healthy, The Telegraph reported Sept. 3. The study of more than 15,000 people found that female patients were half as likely as men to be treated for one of the leading causes of heart problems. Researchers said that GPs and specialists were slow to diagnose the most common form of abnormal cardiac rhythm in women, increasing their risk of stroke and death.

 

Female Doctors in U.S. Earn $50 000 a Year Less than Male Counterparts

 

Female physicians in the U.S. continue to earn less than their male counterparts, with the pay gap widening during the past two decades to more than $50,000 annually in 2010, researchers said, Bloomberg reported Sept. 2. Female doctors had a median annual income of $165,278 from 2006 to 2010, compared with yearly earnings of $221,297 for male physicians. While the annual pay for women doctors has increased since the median of $134,995 in 1990, it’s only now beginning to approach the $168,795 annually earned by men 20 years ago, the researchers found