• V-Day Vision of a World Without Violence Towards Women and Girls. [Bay Area Indymedia] Since 1998, the V-Day movement has worked to stop violence against women and girls worldwide. V-Day’s model of ‘empowerment philanthropy’ has been a catalyst for activists, college students and anti-violence organizations to transform their communities in more than 112 countries to date. Between February 1st and March 8th (International Women’s Day) 2007, over 3000 V-Day benefits will take place in over 1120 communities and on college campuses. All over the world, local activists will stage benefit productions of “The Vagina Monologues,” to raise funds and awareness for local anti-violence groups, rape crisis centers, and women’s shelters in their communities. V-Day’s 2007 theme, "Reclaiming Peace," makes the connection between the worldwide anti-violence work of V-Day activists and a collective desire for peace and an end to armed conflicts. “We are saying that if a government supports the use of force, weapons, violence as a method of control and dominance, this models and gives license to the same kind of behavior at home,” stated V-Day Founder/Artistic Director Eve Ensler.

• Battered Women's Advocate Knows Their Struggles Too Well. [Dallas Morning News] Even across 200 miles of telephone line, Sarah Buel's voice vibrates with outrage. "It is not only heartbreaking but should be appalling," she says of the plight of battered women in Texas prisons. "We are, if not the worst, one of the worst states in how we have responded." That Texas affords little sympathy for battered women who've killed is not surprising. What is remarkable is that after 29 years on the front lines of the domestic violence movement, Ms. Buel still cares.

• Beware Before You Harass ... Web Offers Women Revenge. [Scripps News] She ain't your baby, and no, she doesn't want to take a ride with you. But she does want your picture. A new generation of female bloggers—armed with camera phones—has started an Internet site to post pictures and videos of guys they say harass them in public. Under the motto "If you can't slap 'em, snap 'em!," HollaBack is based on the same sort of camera phone vigilantism that has been used to shame bad drivers, litterbugs and rude sales clerks. In September, San Francisco joined more than a dozen other cities and states that have HollaBack blogs. Women fill the sites with pictures of men they say verbally, and sometimes physically, harass them on the street. "Some men assume they have a right to comment out loud about a woman, and we're supposed to just shrug it off," said Jessica, 22, who started HollaBack-SF out of frustration over the catcalls and kissing noises she heard whenever she left her San Francisco apartment. She asked that her last name not be used to avoid being harassed. The point of HollaBack, she said, is to shift the power dynamic so women have an alternative to simply hanging their heads and walking away. "I don't necessarily think the men who are photographed are going to stop because of HollaBack, but this could start a discussion among women and their male friends about what is appropriate and what isn't," Jessica said.

• Clemency Rare for Women Who Kill Abusive Men. [KHOU] Deborah Jo Welch had been in prison a little over a year for killing her husband, Travis Dean Welch, when she learned about a special legislative clemency program for domestic violence victims. She had reason to hope. "Battered woman syndrome"—the term then used for those who suffered repeated abuse and sometimes reacted violently if they felt their life was in danger—was a hot topic. Books, movies and plays focused on it. Congress held hearings. Laws changed to allow evidence of prior abuse in trials, and shelter capacity increased. Sympathy for such women – even those who killed – ran high. A handful of states, including Texas, conducted special reviews of such cases. That was 12 years ago.

• Harvard Names Its First Female President. [Miami Herald] Harvard University named historian Drew Gilpin Faust as its first female president, ending a lengthy and secretive search to find a successor to Lawrence Summers and his tumultuous five-year tenure. The seven-member Harvard Corporation elected Faust, a noted scholar of the American South and dean of Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, as the university's 28th president. The board of overseers recommended her for the post. She was chosen after a search in which a number of potential candidates said they were not interested in the job. "This is a great day, and a historic day, for Harvard," James R. Houghton, chairman of the presidential search committee, said in a statement. "Drew Faust is an inspiring and accomplished leader, a superb scholar, a dedicated teacher, and a wonderful human being." With a naming of Faust, half of the eight Ivy League schools will have a woman as president. Her selection is noteworthy given the uproar over Summers' comments that genetic differences between the sexes might help explain the dearth of women in top science jobs, comments which sparked debates about equality at Harvard and nationwide.

• Salaries of College-Educated Women Rising Faster Than Male Grads. [KESQ] Women have come a long way, baby. It turns out young women are graduating from college at higher rates than men and they are becoming anything but desperate housewives. The Los Angeles Times reports that some women are out-earning their male peers with their first jobs. Catalyst, a New York-based research group, reports the salaries of college-educated women are up 34.4% since 1979 versus 21.7% for men. Among twenty- and thirtysomethings, more women than men have college degrees and women now account for close to half of medical and law students. Research also indicates that married women are bringing home most of the bacon. Census Bureau data shows that 25.3% of women in two-income marriages bring home the bigger paycheck, up from 17.8 in 1987.

• CVU Youth Inspired by Panel of Female Business Executives. [BurlingtonFreePress.com] Women struggle to find the right balance between their professional and personal lives, three local female business executives told Champlain Valley Union High School students during a panel discussion on the role of women in business. The good news is that finding that balance is possible. "I had to learn to say no with a smile," said Lisa Ventriss, president of the Vermont Business Roundtable. It is important to establish clear boundaries and to know what you want to achieve professionally and what you do not want to do to your family, she said. "Think about this as you grow up, the same demands will be made on you," she advised students. Ventriss, along with Jan Blittersdorf, NRG Systems president/CEO, and Pat Heffernan, co-founder/co-president of Marketing Partners, addressed high school students on the struggles women face in the world of business and on the unique set of skills they bring to the workplace.

• Harriet Woods 1927-2007: A Pioneer for Women in Politics. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch] In the aftermath of Harriett Woods' loss in the 1982 Missouri Senate election, Ellen Malcolm and a small group of women gathered in Washington to vent their frustration. Woods, a Democrat running when few women dared aim so high, had lost to incumbent Sen. John Danforth by a scant 26,247 votes despite being outspent by 50%. 'She ran out of money or she would have won,' said Malcolm, who described Woods' defeat as a turning point in electoral politics for women. Woods, of St. Louis, who died of leukemia at age 79, went on to be elected lieutenant governor in Missouri.

• Carol Pistilli Auld, at 76; Area's First Female Ford Dealer. [NorthJersey.com] Carol Pistilli Auld of Saddle River, the first female Ford dealer in the New York region, died Sunday after a long illness. She was 76. "Everybody loved her, all the customers, and the people who worked there," said her daughter, Lynn Pistilli of Allendale. "My mom was a people person; she liked the customer service end." Mrs. Auld broke new ground in 1985 when she took over the family business, Pistilli Ford on Route 17 in Paramus, following the death of her first husband, D. Richard Pistilli. He ran the business since 1962, when it was Oradell Ford before moving to Paramus.

• Herrin Hires First Female Firefighter. [The Southern] Thadra Ladd is set to make Herrin history, but if you ask her, she's just landing a job that she's grateful to have. Ladd was hired at the city council meeting as Herrin's first full-time female firefighter, a goal she's been working toward for months. Although Ladd is the first woman to don Herrin fire gear, she said she doesn't consider herself a trailblazer. "I really just want to be seen as a firefighter and not the first female firefighter," Ladd said. "I've been a little intimidated by the whole newspaper thing, because there are a lot of hard-working guys that deserve a lot of credit." Herrin Fire Chief Mike Steh said Ladd has already proved herself a worthy firefighter.

• Sylvia Handy Celebrates 10 Years as First and Only Female County Commissioner. [Monitor] "If this was an easy job a man would be doing it," reads a small, rose-rimmed sign hanging on a cabinet knob behind Sylvia Handy as she signs papers at her expansive mahogany desk. Hidalgo County’s Precinct 1 commissioner chuckles when asked about it, but she believes in its comical wisdom. Handy is the alpha female in Hidalgo County politics. The first female county commissioner elected in the Rio Grande Valley, and the only one in Hidalgo County, she entered onto the political stage 10 years ago on a fluke — or maybe it was fate, she says — right in the midst of an untrusting time for South Texas voters. Sam Sanchez, the then-county commissioner whom Handy narrowly defeated, was one of the county officials involved in a scandalous bid-rigging trial. He was eventually acquitted, but Handy recalls what voters were saying during the runoff election of 1996: "Let’s take a chance on a woman. It can’t be any worse than what we have had."

• Female Commodore Makes History. [Yachting Monthly, UK] Plymouth yachtswoman Valerie Bolton has been named the first female Commodore in the 130-year history of Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club. Valerie (pictured) takes over the reins from her husband Mike, Commodore since 2004. The retired business couple live in Manor Park and enjoy sailing their 27-foot Sabre cruiser 'Erini', although the club takes up a good deal of their time. The Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club, based below the Royal Citadel on Plymouth Hoe, has 500 members whose 90 yachts are scattered around local moorings and marinas. One of its boats, 'Rumpleteaser', will be taking part in this year's Fastnet Race, and it can claim several former junior world champions.

• Astronaut Sets Female Spacewalk Record. [Sydney Morning Herald, Australia] US astronaut Sunita Williams has now spent more time walking in space than any other woman, setting the record as she and a crewmate upgraded the international space station's cooling system. Williams broke the previous record of more than 21 hours when she and Michael Lopez-Alegria completed the second of what could be a precedent-setting three spacewalks in nine days. The new record for women is 22 hours and 27 minutes.

• Previous Female Spacewalking Record Was Just Above 21 Hours. [KNX1070] U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams has now spent more time spacewalking than any other woman, setting the record as she and a crewmate upgraded the international space station's cooling system. Williams broke the previous female spacewalking record of more than 21 hours when she and Michael Lopez-Alegria completed the second of what could be a precedent-setting three spacewalks in nine days. The new record is 22 hours and 27 minutes.

• City of Greenville Hires First Female Police Chief. [Tryon Daily Bulletin] The city of Greenville announced this week the hiring of Terri Wilfong, who will be the city’s first female police chief. Wilfong, 49, will replace current chief Willie Johnson when he retires at the end of March. She was one of five candidates who participated in interviews with the public, a 12-member panel of police officers, city department heads and city manager Jim Bourey. Bourey says Wilfong met every criteria and described her as a “cop’s cop” who likes to interact with police officers and the public. Wilfong says she plans to make it a top priority to be seen in her department and in public. Wilfong was assistant chief and Support Bureau commander of the Louisville, Ky., Metro Police Department and spent 26 years on the force. She led police operations for the Kentucky Derby, the Breeder’s Cup, Thunder over Louisville and other events. She has won numerous awards, including the Kentucky Women’s Law Enforcement Network Leadership Award.

• Lawyer Becomes Only Top Female Exec at Large Phila. Firm. [Bizjournals.com] The Pepper Hamilton law firm said Monday it has elected litigator Nina Gussack head of its executive committee. As chairwoman, Gussack will be responsible for major strategic initiatives at the firm such as mergers and acquisitions. She replaces corporate rainmaker Barry M. Abelson, 60, who has chaired the committee since 1995 while continuing to practice law full time. Abelson will solely focus on his practice while also consulting with management. Robert Heideck, 53, has served as Pepper's executive partner, responsible for the firm's daily operations, since 2003. Gussack, 51, has the biggest book of business at the firm and one of the largest in the city, according to numerous lawyers and legal recruiters. She oversees roughly 50 lawyers and a number of contract attorneys and can claim Eli Lilly & Co. as one of her biggest clients. The primary focus of her practice is defending pharmaceutical and medical-device companies in product-liability matters.

• Club Elects First Female Leader. [Fall River Herald News] A French woman in charge of a Portuguese men's club? Say it isn't so. Actually, no one is bothered by this at the St. John's Athletic Club, which just elected Lorraine Fernandes as its first female vice president. "I feel like Hillary Clinton," Fernandes said with a laugh. "I was in awe. I was in shock. I was on cloud nine. Never in a million years did I think I'd be vice president." The athletic club was formed in 1926, a time when most women didn't involve themselves with sports or men's clubs. It was first located in the Brayton Avenue Cafe. The present site of the St. John's Club at 1365 Rodman St. was a bowling alley at the time. "It was an all-men's club and all Portuguese," Fernandes said. "The times have changed." In the 1970s, it accepted its first non-Portuguese member, a man of French ancestry. And, in 1993, women were voted into the club. That was the year that Fernandes became a member. Her husband Ronald was already a club member, and served as vice president and president in the 1990s. Fernandes for years helped organize fund-raising activities, so when the membership opened to women, she quickly paid her dues.

• City’s First Female Asst. Fire Chief Retires. [Baytown Sun] Marian Wyse, the Baytown Fire Department ’s first woman Assistant Fire Chief, retired this week after a 25-year career. She is also the first woman to ever retire from the fire department. “In times past, women weren’t even allowed to attempt to become firefighters,” Wyse said. “Since then, we’ve shown women can do the job and perform as needed for the profession.” Baytown Fire Chief Shon Blake said Wyse “opened the door for women” in the department. “She was able to break through multiple barriers that women in the fire service are faced with and never glanced back,” Blake said. “With her retirement, she takes an enormous amount of knowledge with her that will be difficult to replace.”

• Women Send Glass Ceiling Reeling. [Variety] There's no denying women are a force in Hollywood. Forbes recently published its list of the 20 richest women in entertainment. Both Variety and the Hollywood Reporter annually offer up rosters of women by power and achievement. Groups like Women in Film, the Alliance of Women Directors, Women Make Movies, Moviesbywomen.com, the Cinefemme Film Festival and a panel series called Chicks Make Flicks support the work of femmes in the biz. But is it time to tear down such gender distinctions? Do they have any meaningful impact? "It used to be essential, but it's not necessary anymore," says one veteran female producer, who notes every time a Hollywood woman is honored, she says in her acceptance speech that she looks forward to the day these events are no longer needed. "That day came about eight or 10 years ago."

• Ex-Wal-Mart Executive Must Testify Again in Women's Bias Suit. [Bloomberg] Former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Vice Chairman Thomas M. Coughlin, who pleaded guilty to federal charges of stealing from the company, was ordered by a judge to testify again in a lawsuit claiming bias against women. Attorneys for the women said they needed to immediately interview Coughlin, who was sentenced to house arrest because of health problems, in case his declining condition rendered him unavailable for a future trial. Coughlin testified previously in the case. U.S. District Judge Martin Jenkins in San Francisco said at a hearing that he would allow a new deposition, over Wal-Mart's objections. The suit, which seeks to represent as many as 2 million current and former workers at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores, claims the company paid women less and gave them fewer promotions. The pre-trial gathering of evidence, known as discovery, has been delayed while Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, appeals a decision giving the women the right to sue as a group.

• Suit Accuses Alameda County DA of Bias Against Female Staffers. [San Francisco Chronicle] A female prosecutor working for Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff has filed a lawsuit accusing him of routinely discriminating against and failing to promote women in his office and making "disparaging, unwelcome and offensive remarks" about them. The suit filed this week by Senior Deputy District Attorney Angela Backers, a 22-year veteran of the office who serves as the county's top death-penalty prosecutor, accuses Orloff of failing to promote her and retaliating against her when she complained. "Despite plaintiff's many years of experience, dedicated hard work, excellent trial results and acknowledgement for her high-quality work from individuals and organizations both within and outside the district attorney's office, she has nevertheless been subjected to ongoing discrimination, harassment and retaliation based on her gender," said the suit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court.

• Male Accountants Slam Female-Friendly Policies. [Management-Issues, UK] Nine out of 10 male accountants believe they have been adversely affected by attempts to create a more favorable working environment for women and many believe that women are being promoted when they do not deserve to be. But the depth of the resentment felt by male accountants comes despite the fact that three-quarters also believe that women in accountancy are hampered by a persistent glass ceiling. These contrasting attitudes emerged from "Battle of the Sexes?", a report published by audit recruitment specialists www.careersinaudit.com which argues that the poor representation of women at the top levels of the accountancy profession is more to do with work-life balance than it is discrimination in the workplace.

• Boys Allowed: Nine Males Having Success Leading Area Female Programs. [Spartanburg Herald Journal] During timeouts, Layne Fowler stands out from the rest of the members on his Byrnes basketball team -- he's the only one in the huddle who could never be homecoming queen. Fowler, though, isn't the only coach who is noticeably different from his players. He is one of nine males in the area who is a head coach on a high school girls basketball team. For the past three years, Fowler has learned valuable lessons coaching the opposite sex. It's been a tutorial in changing habits, applying a game plan and knowing when to use a soft tone opposed to a scream. "Honestly, there's not much difference" in the way the game is played, he said.

• Sexy Female Athletes Issue for Girls. [NorthJersey.com] Nicole D'Amato and her Wayne Valley basketball teammates don't keep up with pro sports scores or team standings, but they still can tick off a long list of star athletes: Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, Yao Ming, Derek Jeter, Shaquille O'Neal. Their list of female athletes, though, is significantly shorter: Mia Hamm and Maria Sharapova. But the low profile of female athletes, even to girls who hit the basketball court every day, should be no surprise. Women athletes still fall woefully behind in both media coverage, gaining only 8% of print coverage and just over 6% of television coverage, according to a 2006 report by the Women's Sports Foundation. A lower media profile makes female athletes less recognizable to the public and, therefore, less likely to be featured in endorsement deals and ad campaigns. So when opportunity does come knocking, it can be harder for them to turn down the added compensation and visibility, even if it means appearing less like athletes and more like pinup girls.

• Weighing Women Players a Matter of Debate. [San Francisco Chronicle] The University of Oklahoma tells women's basketball fans a lot about Courtney Paris, the Sooners' 6-foot-4-inch center. They know that she ranks third in the country in scoring, second in rebounding and that her dream job is to be a novelist. That her best friend is her identical twin and teammate, Ashley Paris, and that her father, Bubba Paris, helped win three Super Bowls as a lineman for the 49ers. But one piece of information about Paris is not made public by the university: her weight. The weights of male athletes are widely publicized by college teams, but 35 years after the enactment of the gender-equity law known as Title IX, and 25 seasons after the NCAA began sponsoring women's basketball, the weights of amateur female athletes are almost never published, in basketball or any other sport. Even as women are embracing their size and power, projecting the notion that a wide body can be a fit body, the very idea of weighing female athletes is under vigorous debate. Some colleges weigh their basketball players regularly to guard against rapid weight loss or gain. Some weigh infrequently; others not at all.

• Women Tuning Out Morning Newscasts. [Sun-Sentinel.com] Lauck's not alone in souring on network news programs. In particular, this season has seen a significant erosion of the morning shows' demographic sweet spot: 25- to 54-year-old women. Almost 450,000 of these women--coveted by advertisers because of their household purchasing power--turned off the three broadcast morning programs so far this season, a decline of 10% compared to the same point last year, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of Nielsen Media Research data. (Male viewers the same age also fell by 9%, but they make up a much smaller portion of the audience.)

• New Call for ‘Potty Parity’ Between Men and Women. [Canarsie Digest] Call it a pre-Valentine’s Day gift, Capitol Hill style. With the introduction of a new bill, Rep. Ed Towns might soon emerge as a hero to Gwendolyn, his wife of 48 years—as well as to countless women across the country. Towns’ bill, called the “Restroom Gender Parity in Federal Buildings Act of 2007,” would require buildings that receive at least $1.5 million in federal funds to have a two-to-one ratio of women’s restrooms to men’s. If passed, the bill would impact future construction projects, including the Nets basketball arena, he said. “This is utterly ridiculous for women to stand in line like this, and some of these facilities are using federal dollars,” Towns said.

• Liberals to Run More Female Candidates in Election. [CTV.ca, Canada] The governing Liberals will have a whittled-down set of promises and more female candidates when it faces a tough electorate in October's province-wide vote, campaign chair Greg Sorbara said at the party's weekend policy convention. The finance minister said the Liberals' message this time will be more streamlined than it was when the party was elected on the strength of 231 promises in 2003. "The difference between then and now is that today, and as we go into the election, we have a record,'' Sorbara said as the Liberals wrapped up their weekend policy convention. "We think it's a pretty darned good record. When you're renewing your contract, you speak to that and what you're proposing in the next period.

• The Vanishing Rights Of Women. [Blogcritics.org] Is it just me or do we seem to be going backwards on the evolutionary ladder? Maybe not as a species, but as a society. We sure seem to be sliding back to the primordial pool. If we use the way women are being treated today (as opposed to about fifteen years ago) as a bellwether, you can see how what I'm talking about. I'm sure you're wondering where I can possibly get off saying things like that, especially living as I do in Canada, where we have social programs a lot people only dream about and a standard of living better then half the world. It's all relative, you know. Since the 1970's, women have been gradually gaining rights that had been denied them by law since men started treating them like chattel and trade goods thousands of years ago. They managed to begin being treated like equal partners in a marriage instead of the property of the husband. They managed to gain legal control over what happened with their bodies. They started to make advances in the work force through the availability of accessible daycare. If there is no daycare and a woman doesn't have parents she can leave her children with, how does she hold down a job? She has to be on welfare and try to raise her child with some dignity. Unfortunately, just when the Liberals started to try and make up for their cruelty, they lost the next election in Canada.

• Women Lacking Influence in Ottawa. [Toronto Star, Canada] No matter who said it first, Stéphane Dion should consider the politically incorrect foolishness in the comedic line: A woman is just a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke. Nominating more female candidates, as the Liberal leader promises, would be a good thing. It's just not the most important thing. Elections, Parliaments and, most of all, minority governments are about numbers. But when the math is done, what counts is who has influence. Don't bother taking off shoes and socks to figure out the answer. In the national capital, power is concentrated at the centre and at the centre of power are men. That's not a new phenomenon. It's a long search to find a woman cabinet minister with the muscle of her strongest male counterparts.

• 'Another One?' Women Express Shock at Mother's Slaying. [Vancouver Province, Canada] The calls to women's shelters began almost immediately after the murder of Amanpreet Kaur Bahia. The women who flooded phone lines at Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter last week were afraid, shocked and distressed at the news -- but ready to take a stand. "I got calls right away from South Asian women who were seriously distressed by another attack on us," says Daisy Kler, who works at the shelter. "The response was immediate from South Asian women that they were not only distressed and saddened by it, but ready to organize. They were saying, what are we going to do -- another one?" For many, what was most shocking about the death of the 33-year-old mother was that it came on the heels of much soul searching within the Indo-Canadian community after a wave of violence against Indo-Canadian women last fall. Bahia was the third Indo-Canadian woman to be murdered in recent months and the fourth Indo-Canadian victim of a violent attack.

• Women Dominate at Universities. [Vancouver Sun, Canada] In a computer lab at McGill University's McConnell Engineering building, doctoral student Carmen Au patches digital images together to create a panoramic mosaic from a random smattering of snapshots. Environmental biologist Louise Henault Ethier's adventure in vermicomposting has five million worms devouring garbage in the rooftop greenhouse of Concordia University's Henry F. Hall building. Olivia Chiu, a master's student in robotics, is just home from a research trip to McGill's marine research lab in Barbados, where she's trying to teach a flipper-powered underwater robot to navigate through coral reefs without a human directing its every paddle. When university administrators and professors talk about the gender revolution taking place on campus these days, they aren't simply struck by the quantity of female students. It's the quality, reflected in high grades, disciplined study habits and ability to focus on getting the job done, that has them sitting up and paying attention. Everywhere you look, bright women are putting their passions to the test, eager to re-invent the world, bursting with ideas on tackling pollution, ending world hunger or finding a cure for cancer or infectious diseases.

• Female Enrolment in Engineering an Uphill Battle. [Gateway.ualberta.ca, Canada] Figures from the Faculty of Engineering showed that in 2000 approximately 22.2% of the students enrolled in engineering were females, or about 674 women in a faculty of 3032 students. When compared to 2006, with women making up 20.1% of undergraduates, it would seem that the female engineering population is shrinking. However, according to Ken Porteous, Assistant Dean of Engineering, this isn’t so. “[The year 2000] was when we had the largest relative percentage of women in engineering,” Porteous said, adding that it is difficult to determine why the proportion of females is declining and also noting that in 2006 there were 3503 students enrolled in the Faculty of Engineering, of which 703 or 20.1% were female. “Why there aren’t more women in engineering is a very tough question to answer,” Porteous said. “There are some disciplines [in engineering] that seem to attract more women than others, for example, chemical, environmental and biomedical engineering. It could be because women enjoy work that sees a more immediate benefit to society.”

• No Stoning, Canada Migrants Told. [BBC Bulgaria, Bulgaria] Don't stone women to death, burn them or circumcise them, immigrants wishing to live in the town of Herouxville in Quebec, Canada, have been told. The rules come in a new town council declaration on culture that Muslims have branded shocking and insulting. Quebec is in the midst of a huge debate on integrating immigrant cultures. Montreal police are investigating an officer who wrote a song called That's Enough Already, which says immigrants are undermining Quebec culture.

• Muslim Women Visit Quebec Town That Has Controversial Code. [Canada.com, Canada] A delegation of Muslim women paid a visit to the Quebec town that passed a controversial code aimed at immigrants. Clad in traditional Islamic headscarves, six women and several Muslim students met with the council and residents of Herouxville, 165 kilometers northeast of Montreal. Last month the town council passed the list of societal norms for would-be immigrants, letting them know that a man cannot stone a woman to death or burn her with acid. According to the so-called "code of life," faces are not to be covered except at Halloween and children can't carry weapons, including Sikh kirpans, to school, despite the fact that the Supreme Court of Canada has already upheld that right for Sikh Canadians.

• Governor General Shares Experiences with Immigrant Women in Halifax. [Canada.com, Canada] As a former refugee from Haiti, Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean had her own life story to share when she met Monday with a group of immigrant women in Halifax. The meeting came on the first day of an official, three-day visit to Nova Scotia, which coincides with African Heritage Month celebrations. As she opened a roundtable discussion with 28 women, Jean remembered how she came to Canada with her mother and sister in 1968, at the age of 11. They carried "just a few suitcases" and five cherished photographs of their past lives on the impoverished Caribbean island. Jean recalled growing up in a tiny apartment as her mother juggled low-wage factory work with retraining to become a nursing assistant. "I know what you've done takes a lot of courage," she told the women at Pier 21, a former waterfront ship terminal that served as the gateway to Canada for thousands of immigrants.

Jamaica

• 'Nothing Unusual' - Female Cops Say Sexual Harassment Prevalent. [Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica] The alleged sexual assault of a female officer at the Ocho Rios Police Station by a male colleague has been greeted by several female cops as "common practice" and "nothing unusual". They paint a picture of a police force that is nothing more than "a good old boys club", which sees female officers as pawns short on intellect and high on physical attributes. "I first heard about the Ocho Rios incident two weeks ago, but honestly I wasn't shocked, to say the least," one female officer who hails from the parish of St. Mary told The Gleaner on Friday. "Sexual harassment is very prevalent in the police force; that is a known fact. Female officers are seen in many cases as just a piece of meat and are there to entertain the lustful nature of their male colleagues." Another officer from St. Catherine weighed in. "I have had male colleagues touching my buttocks and displaying utter shock at the fact that I was not amused," she said. "It doesn't matter if you are married or is known to be with somebody; female officers are expected to toe the line and keep their mouths shut."

• Three Abortion Clinics Closed in Dominican Capital, Doctors Fined. [The Associated Press] Three Santo Domingo clinics were closed and their doctors fined for performing abortions, which are illegal in the Dominican Republic, the capital district attorney's office said. Doctors Numa Perez Molina, Ramon Antonio Nunez Cruz and Luis Antonio McKinney Soriano were arrested during the raids, along with four patients. The doctors were each fined US$15,500 (€11,900) for performing the procedure and were released from jail on bond, prosecutors said in a statement. They face further legal proceedings. Five staff members at the clinics, the patients and two others were each fined between US$150 (€115) and US$780 (€600). Dr. Enriquillo Matos, president of the Dominican Medical College, criticized the arrests.