• Prostitution and Pacific Fishing. [Greenpeace International, Netherlands] Fishing and prostitution might be the two oldest professions. But the exploitation of both is creating new vulnerabilities for Pacific islands as the whole world increasingly comes to fish in its waters. Ben Bohane reports from Kiribati. The deck of the Taiwanese purse-seiner bustles with activity. At anchor a few kilometres off Tarawa in Kiribati, tons of skipjack tuna are lifted from a refrigerated hold up onto the sweltering topdeck for transshipment to a ship moored beside it. Whistles blow, nets of shimmering fish are raised and swung onto the mothership, which will take its cargo to canneries in Papua New Guinea and Taiwan. But look closer and another small transshipment is also taking place between the two rolling boats. A young girl is gingerly easing herself down thick ropes from the mothership onto the purse-seiner. It is a delicate balancing act 20 meters above water and for a moment she looks like a trapeze artist, walking the tightrope. She smiles at one of the Taiwanese crew as she drops like a cat onto the deck and disappears into a nearby cabin. Here in Kiribati she is known as a "korakorea" girl; a girl who spends time with fishermen.

Australia

• Court Decision 'Blow to Women's Pay'. [NEWS.com.au, Australia] Women will find it more difficult to claim equal pay following the High Court ruling on the Federal Government's industrial relations laws, University of NSW research shows. The High Court yesterday dismissed a constitutional challenge by the states and territories to its employment laws. State premiers say the decision increases the Federal Government's powers. UNSW Faculty of Commerce and Economics deputy director Dr Anne Junor said today the decision was a setback for women after most jurisdictions had developed equitable pay models in the past six years. “The changes will leave a wide range of workers vulnerable to Australian Workplace Agreements,” Dr Junor said.

• Female Senators Call on Abbott to Fast Track Vaccine. [NEWS.com.au] A cross-party group of women senators has written to Health Minister Tony Abbott, asking him to intervene following the decision not to make a cervical cancer vaccine free to all females aged 12 to 26. Liberal senator Jeannie Ferris, who is recovering from ovarian cancer said the issue goes beyond party politics. She said Professor Ian Frazer had developed Gardasil, which is 100% effective against sexually transmitted human papilloma virus that causes 70% of cervical cancers. Senator Ferris has told the Senate that 22 female senators have signed a letter to the Health Minister Mr Abbott asking him to find a way to review the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee's decision. Senator Ferris said that it is very important the government looks at ways the vaccine can be made available more quickly to women and girls.

• Police Investigate Alleged Prisoner Assault. [ABC Online, Australia] A female prisoner has been relocated to a Perth facility after allegedly being sexually assaulted at Roebourne Regional Prison. The Department of Corrective Services says a male inmate assaulted a female prisoner. No charges have been laid and the Police Department says it is unable to comment further on the incident while the inquiry is still underway.

• White Ribbons a Tool Against Abuse of Women. [The Age, Australia] A confronting advertising campaign and a white ribbon — these are the tools campaigners hope men will take up to combat violence against women. White Ribbon Day began with a group of Canadian men in 1991 and only gained ground in Australia in 2003, when the Australian branch of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) stepped in. It receives no government funding and coordinator Louisa Graham said all money raised had been reinvested in the campaign. In 2003, 10,000 ribbons were distributed, rising to 250,000 in 2005. This year Ms Graham expects more than 400,000 to be sold.

• Female Cancer Carers 'Find It Tougher'. [The Age, Australia] Women find the burden of caring for a loved one with cancer much harder than men, new research shows. The three-year study by the University of Western Sydney found major differences in the way male and female carers cope. Women experience more distress, have more unmet needs and a greater burden of care than men overall, according to interviews with 217 carers.

• IT Women in the Industry. [Sydney Morning Herald, Australia] The days of bra-burning anger are over, aren't they? The modern corporate world has embraced gender diversity, right? "(I am) sick of banging my head on the glass ceiling," says one furious female information and communications technology worker. "(I am) sick of the added scrutiny, just plain tired of corporate life, upset when yet again passed over for a dill who thinks he's my equal, when he has less experience, less know-how and fewer qualifications." While the glass ceiling dissolves in the enlightened world, many women believe ICT hides dark corners of exclusion. The proportion of women to men in the occupation has fallen steadily in the past five years, from 26.65% in 2001 to 20% in 2005, according to the Department of Education, Science and Training. Women are leaving IT and not being replaced.

• Caring Women Donate To Needy People. [Bru Direct, Brunei Darussalam] A caring women group who call themselves HawaNDP continued to track impoverished people in the Sultanate to donate food and daily commodities to tell them that they are not forgotten in this festive season. Early this week, the group visited the house of 36-year-old Dayang Noriah bte Aji in Jalan Pulau Kubu Jerudong who lives with her fisherman husband, seven children, her parents and four close relatives.

• Foreign Women Label Beijing a Dating Wasteland. [China Daily, China] As China's expatriate population grows, many foreign women looking for love are saying this is the wrong place to meet Mr Right. Many single expat women quickly find that most foreign dreamboats have already sailed, and their chemistry with local men rarely stirs the right mix for a love potion.

• Senior Official Calls for Collection of Women-, Children-Related Cultural Relics. [People's Daily Online, China] Senior Chinese official has urged women's federations of different levels to promote the collection of cultural relics involving women and children and the building of the national museum for women and children. This was remarked here on Saturday by Gu Xiulian, vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) and chairperson of the All-China Women's Federation, at a national conference on collection of these cultural relics. The museum, which serves as an educational base and a platform for international exchanges, is now being built, and meanwhile, people of different circles are working hard to collect relevant cultural relics under the guidance of experts, Gu said.

• Pan Yuliang, Female Pioneer of Bathing Nudity Painting. [Xinhua, China] Pan Yuliang, renowned for her own model, self-portraits and bathing women, who was condemned as "depraved" in the 1930-40 by conservative officials and art critics in China, now gains her reputation -- a female pioneer painter of western painting. She left Shanghai for France again in 1937, and settled down in Paris. She was selected by the overseas Chinese artists in France to be the chairman of the Chinese Art Association, and her works were often exhibited in France as well as in Britain, U.S., Germany, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and Greece. Her works were collected by many places including the Paris Municipal Government, the French Ministry of Education, the National Modern Art Gallery and Cernushi Museum. In 1959, Pan Yuliang was awarded the Paris Gold Prize and the Belgium Silver Prize. She died on July 22, 1977, in Paris, and her works were sent back to China in 1985. Her works are now in collection at China National Art Gallery in Beijing and Anhui Provincial Museum in Hefei.

• 'Belly Dancer' Rare, Touching Look at Hong Kong's Working-Class Housewife. [The Associated Press] Hong Kong is famous for its macho kung fu and gangster movies. Director Lee Kung-lok's "My Mother is a Belly Dancer" is a rare and heartwarming look at a female Hong Kong demographic that gets much derision and little appreciation — the working-class housewife, known locally as "see lai." In America, they're known as "soccer moms" — busy suburban women who ferry their children to soccer practice. The Hong Kong equivalent has a more derogatory image — gossipy, lack of fashion sense, uneducated. The mink-wearing, Louis Vuitton-obsessed rich Hong Kong housewife who rides around town in a Rolls Royce, commonly known as a "tai tai," is more familiar to the public consciousness. The women known as "see lai" are a different breed.

• Report: Man Attacks Wife, Mother-in-Law with Machete at Indonesian Divorce Hearing. [The Associated Press] A man attacked his wife and mother-in-law with a machete during a divorce hearing in Indonesia, a newspaper reported Friday. The wife was treated in a hospital for head wounds, while the mother-in-law had minor cuts to her upper body as a result of the incident Thursday in a courtroom in Cianjur on the country's main island of Java, the Koran Tempo daily said. The 31-year-old man said he attacked the two women because his wife had refused to reveal who had ordered her to end their 3 1/2 year marriage, the paper reported.

• Women Having Sex Younger. [The Japan Times, Japan] 62% of female university students have had sex, up 10 percentage points from six years ago to reach the same percentage as their male peers, according to a nationwide survey. The survey, taken by the Japanese Association for Sex Education, found the experience gap between females and males among high school students is also shrinking. The Tokyo-based association carries out this kind of survey about every six years to investigate sexual behavior of young people.

• Despite Ban, Yokosuka Sex Trade Flourishes. [Stars and Stripes] If you’re an American man without a girl on your arm, walking from Yokosuka’s main train station to the nightlife district is a “massagy-girl” gantlet. There is a woman on each corner grabbing for sailors on the street that runs from Yokosuka Chuo to the Honch, the entertainment center outside Yokosuka Naval Base. What the girls sell costs $30 to $170 and involves some form of “happy ending.” And because participating in sex for money is illegal for U.S. service members under military law, sailors Stars and Stripes spoke to in the Honch also declined to give their names. “Doing a massagy” is almost a rite of passage for male sailors when they get to Yokosuka, one USS Kitty Hawk sailor said. The sex trade is more permissible here than at home and easily available, he said.

• The Dawn of Modern Korea: Female Workforce. [Korea Times] Korea still has a large number of full-time housewives. The situation is changing fast but generally speaking women’s career opportunities are limited, so many Korean women quit their jobs soon after marriage. However, even these limited opportunities for female employment are very new: They appeared only two or three decades ago. Until well after the Korean War, few Koreans had any doubts about the centuries-old division of labor. Man was supposed to be the breadwinner who worked outside the house while his wife toiled within the walls of their home. At that time, before the arrival of washing machines and tap water, housework was much more difficult and time-consuming than any modern woman would imagine.

• Work Top Priority for 70% of Single Women. [Korea Times, South Korea] Seven out of 10 unmarried women think work is more important than marriage, according to a local survey conducted by the government. In a survey conducted from Oct. 24 to Oct. 26, by a local research firm Embrain, of 1,000 adults aged from 19 to 69, 69.9% of the respondents said they may give up marriage in order to be successful in their career. The survey was commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. As for the question asking if they feel a responsibility for giving birth, only 38% of those with no children said yes. However, 91% of the respondents said having children is necessary and 80% said the desirable number of children is more than one.

• Culture Afraid to Break Male/Female Dichotomy. [South Korea] A lot of people want to be able to tell whether the people they meet are women or men. Fortunate for them, there are ways to do this, because between South Korea's national ID cards and public restrooms, there are a lot of ways to tell. A person's appearance, clothing, style of speech, and attitude also classify people by their gender. It is all so natural that you don't even think of sexual identity as being important in the course of your diverse range of relationships. But the world as it has been meticulously structured would certainly become a confused system if there were a lot of people who were undeterminable or who spoke of their sexual identity in different ways.

• North Koreans in Czech Jobs: Slave labor? [International Herald Tribune] At a time when North Korea is under fire for its nuclear weapons program, nearly 400 North Korean women are quietly helping the motherland by working at humble jobs in Czech Republic and sending their wages home. The women, mainly seamstresses, are now themselves at the center of debate, with some critics contending that their work amounts to state-imposed forced labor. Vaclav Havel, the former president, is among those who have said that the Czech Republic should not be used as a base for filling North Korea's coffers. Although the Czech government stopped issuing new work visas for North Koreans in June, those who entered previously are still employed at various sites, including the Snezka textile factory here in Nachod, where they sew headrests and armrests for BMWs, Mercedes, Renaults and other cars sold in Western Europe.

• North Korea Lauds Its First Female Boxing Ref. [FOXSports.com] North Korea's first female boxing referee attracted media attention Wednesday for impressing spectators while adroitly refereeing recent bouts dressed in a uniform "suitable to her slim figure." Kim Won Hui, a 31-year-old former volleyball player, became the North's first female boxing referee in 2003 after completing an "eight-year course of boxing, refereeing and foreign language" at Korean University of Physical Education, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said. North Korea, influenced by traditional Korean Confucianism, is a totally male-dominated society. Nearly all high-level government posts are believed to be held by men. But the country has some female sports stars, including judo athlete Kye Sun Hui, who became a heroine after winning gold at the 1996 Olympics, and Ham Pong Sil, who won the women's marathon at the 2002 Asian Games.

• Move to End Abuse Against Women. [New Straits Times, Malaysia] In light of the rising incidence of violence against women, a three-day campaign to raise awareness of the issue will be held this weekend. Organized by the Soroptimist International Region of Malaysia (Sirom), the "End Violence Against Women" campaign will be held in conjunction with the United Nations’ Eliminate Violence Against Women Day. The event will be launched by the wife of the deputy prime minister, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, at Berjaya Times Square here on Friday. As part of the campaign, an exhibition of safety and security equipment for cars, homes and personal use will be held on the Lower Ground Floor of Berjaya Times Square, from Friday to Sunday, from 10am to 10pm. A series of interactive programs comprising workshops and talks underpin the campaign.

• Appointment Of Women To Key Posts Unsatisfactory, Says Rafidah. [Bernama, Malaysia] The appointment of women to key posts in the country is still unsatisfactory although there are many capable women around, Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz said. She said that although women were appointed, they were for minor and unimportant posts. "For example, most of the appointments at the district or state levels are mainly those in committees in charge of juveniles, hospital visitors, senior citizens, consumers, the disabled and so forth.

• More Malaysian Men Marrying Foreign Women, Indonesians Top Bride List, Report Says. [Associated Press] More ethnic Chinese and Indian men in Malaysia are marrying foreign women, with Indonesian brides being the most popular, a report said Wednesday. But fewer women among the Chinese and Indians appear to be marrying foreign men, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Tan Chai Ho told Parliament, the national news agency Bernama reported. According to Tan's figures, from 2001 to June this year, 33,995 marriages between local men and foreign women had been registered. Indonesian women were the top pick of Malaysian men with 2,036 marriages registered in 2005, up sharply from 1,386 in 2001.

• Facets of an Urban Indian Female. [Malaysia Star, Malaysia] Anita Ratnam was in Kuala Lumpur last weekend to perform Seven Graces, as part of the third (and final) flush of the “Under the Stars Series” 2006. The show, which rounded up Sutra Dance Theatre’s performance season for the year, is her solo “operatic” creation. She worked in collaboration with Hari Krishnan, an India-born, Canada-based dancer, choreographer, teacher and dance scholar. In India today, Ratnam notes, solo work does not figure in contemporary dance, which usually features group choreography. Thus her solo dance challenges yet another “norm”.

• £2 Million A Year Sex Traffickers Jailed. [Life Style Extra, UK] A ruthless gang who lured scores of young women to Britain to work as sex slaves in upmarket brothels as part of a huge £2 million a year vice racket were jailed today. A woman a week was sold into slavery at Heathrow's Terminal 3 for two years before the massive international vice network was finally smashed. The mastermind behind the plot Thanh Hue Thi, 44, and his 23-year-old wife Mee Yoke Pang lured hundreds of women from Malaysia to work in exclusive London bordellos.

• At the Umno General Assembly '06: Women Getting Too Much 'Exposure in Movies, Advertisements, Newspapers’. [New Straits Times, Malaysia] Its chief Datuk Noraini Ahmad said: "Lately, there have been Malay films that are becoming more daring by exposing more and more. "Producers are fond of featuring Malay women in the kemban (sarong wrapped up to the chest)." She said such scenes did not reflect eastern values. Noraini also criticized "an English tabloid" for an article published on Nov 4 entitled Let’s Talk About Sex which she said openly discussed sexual behavior. She was referring to the Weekend Mail, whose publication has been suspended by the government.

• UN Envoy Says Myanmar's Suu Kyi in Good Health. [Reuters] Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is in good health after three years in detention but wants more regular visits by her doctor, a U.N. envoy said on Saturday after a rare meeting with the Nobel laureate. Ibrahim Gambari also had "frank and extensive" talks with junta supremo Senior General Than Shwe which covered a range of political and humanitarian issues, the U.N. office in Myanmar said in a statement. Suu Kyi was driven under tight security to Gambari's government guest house in Yangon, a short distance from the lakeside villa where she is under house arrest, witnesses said. After the one-hour meeting, the U.N. released photos of 61-year-old Suu Kyi, believed to be the first seen by the outside world since her latest detention began in May 2003.

• Day in the Life of a Guerrilla Girl. [OhmyNews International, South Korea] have always been interested in female rebels, wanting to meet them and get their stories. By chance, I happened to encounter a sizable number of young women guerrillas preparing for a temporary encampment in the Sarlahi district in eastern Nepal recently. The reason for Sakuntala Dhungana’s activism was the injustice that prevails in her village. One of her candid statements was very touching, "Girls like us have proved that bullets and guns touched by women burst," as opposed to "Guns and bullets touched by women don't burst," a saying current among us in Nepal. "What has your life been like since joining up?" She mused for a while and said, "I was just a daughter in my home before, but now I am a daughter of this nation as well, as we young women need to change this patriarchal society."

• Women Bear Brunt as Job Figures Fall. [Stuff.co.nz] The Christmas shopping boom is likely to be a little less frenzied this year - unemployment has risen to 3.8% after about 10,000 women lost their jobs in the past three months. After a hiring bonanza in the first half of the year, with more than 40,000 new jobs and unemployment falling to 3.6% in June, it got tougher to find work in the September quarter. Statistics New Zealand figures showed 5000 full-time jobs disappeared in the September quarter, and part-time jobs fell by 4000. The number of men in work was steady, with a strong construction sector, but women at work fell by 10,000, possibly reflecting a weaker manufacturing sector. Fewer jobs means overall spending is likely to slow down, coming into December when shop sales are about twice as big as an average month.

• Women Worse Impulse Buyers Than Men - Survey. [Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand] The stereotypes have won out again. New research into impulse buying reveals women are more likely than men to throw extra goodies into the trolley. More than half of the 1001 people surveyed said impulse buying at the supermarket had resulted in a budget blowout. Women and shoppers aged between 40 and 49 were the worst offenders.

• RP Only Asian Country in Gender-Sensitive List. [Manila Standard Today, Philippines] The Philippines is the only Asian country that made it to the top 10 gender-sensitive states in the list of the World Economic Forum released yesterday. The group ranked the Philippines as sixth most-gender-sensitive after Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, and Germany. “The Philippines is distinctive as the only Asian country in the top 10,” the group said in a statement. “The new index assesses countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities.” The Philippines scored perfect points in literacy, enrollment in primary, secondary and tertiary schools, healthy life expectancy, and equal professional opportunities. But the Philippines could do more in the number of women gaining positions in the Cabinet and female politicians getting elected, the group said.

• Wang Yue Gu, the Women's Singles Champion. [ITTF, Switzerland] One week earlier in St Petersburg, the Singapore duo of Li Jia Wei and Wang Yue Gu had contested the Women’s Singles final at the Eurosib Russian Open. In Bayreuth on Sunday 12th November 2006 it was exactly the same situation at the Liebherr German Open. The top two seeds had reached the final. In St Petersburg the verdict went to Li Jia Wei, at the Liebherr German Open the verdict went in the other direction.

• Stuffing the Prudish Image. [Malaysia Star, Malaysia] Over the past decade, a social change has been taking place in prim and proper Singapore – a steady loosening of sexual mores, especially among men over 50. The younger political leaders are themselves taking a number of baby steps to move away from the old “nanny” days of strict control on what people can or cannot do with their love lives. This is partly in response to a changed generation, which is more fun-loving and adventurous about sex, unlike their parents who regarded it as a taboo subject. The reason? Tens of thousands of women from the region, especially from China, who flock here as students or tourists and settling into Singapore’s flourishing sex trade. There is a bigger reason: Viagra, the revolutionary anti-impotency drug that has significantly changed Singapore since it got here eight years ago. I have met local women in their 50s who still giggle when someone mentions the word “penis”. Many had stopped having sex with their husbands, while the men, virile or not, still hanker for it. This deprivation has shown up in many ways among some grandfathers. I notice that whenever there is an art (not photo) exhibition on nudes, many of the visitors are elderly “heartlander” men. At screenings of “X-rated” movies, one will likely find an audience made up predominantly of senior male citizens: many of them may never have seen a naked woman other than his wife. A few have been charged for molesting their maids. One 80-year-old was caught exposing himself to women.

• Student on Mission to Expose Thailand Sex Trade. [Appleton Post Crescent] "Purely from an artistic standpoint, the photographs are intense," Schultz said. "The portion of the show that we have here, 'The Cancer of Thailand,' is pretty much photographs of the red-light district in Bangkok. Those are pretty intense and for some people they're overwhelming and maybe aren't a subject matter that people want to look at. But at the same time, I think that's what makes it powerful, too. "At another location you may have these beautiful pictures of typical Thai scenes and Thai people that really don't have anything to do with the prostitution or the sex trade industry. It'll be interesting that you can look at something that's so beautiful and then you can look at something that's so demoralizing and abusive."

• Female Thai Airways Employees Allege Harassment. [International Herald Tribune, France] More than a dozen female Thai Airways employees have accused construction workers at Bangkok's new international airport of sexual harassment, saying they were verbally or physically assaulted during evening shifts, a union leader said Wednesday. Suvarnabhumi airport opened in September but remains partly under construction, with workers roaming corridors through the night. Since opening, the airport has faced a barrage of complaints from travelers, who say the airport lacks enough bathrooms and has overcrowded check-in areas. Three female ground staff said they were molested late at night by workers who groped them as they walked through dimly lit corridors, said Somsak Srinual, head of the union that represents Thai Airways employees. Women staffers have complained of finding workers peering over the toilet stalls in restrooms. About a dozen have reported incidents of verbal harassment, Somsak said. One Thai Airways employee, Santini Samiphakwiwatwej, told Channel 9 television on Tuesday that a construction worker appeared to be stalking her.

• Elderly Women Bear Burden of AIDS. [VietNamNet Bridge, Vietnam] Elderly women usually have the luxury of time to relax and enjoy their golden years. But the HIV/AIDS epidemic has put a new burden on their frail shoulders Many old women painfully witness their children and grandchildren suffering from HIV/AIDS. They spend most of their time as well as their energy caring for these victims, without any support or compensation. Old women in Vietnam have played an important role in caring for and assisting HIV patients as well as teaching orphaned children. According to UNAIDS, approximately 90% of HIV/AIDS victims are cared for at their homes by elderly people.