World's
Women Have an Advocate. [Toronto Star, Canada] Rapes of women and girls
were escalating every month, and half the girls sexually assaulted were under 12. Even
more startling was a new pattern; "a significant number of women aged 65 to 80 were
also raped. The men who did it were confident they could have unprotected sex with them
without getting AIDS."
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- 'Women Fall for Voice,
Men for Looks'. [Hindustan Times, India] Researchers at the University of Bath
have revealed that men and women judge the opposite sex differently when it comes to
finding a perfect partner. While men are attracted to a woman's looks and physical
appearance, women tend to be are turned on by a man’s voice.
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Star Trek Fan is First
Female Space Tourist. [TimesOnLine UK] As a girl growing up in Tehran,
Anousheh Ansari watched Star Trek and dreamt of becoming an astronaut. Ansari’s
childhood fantasies are about to come true as she prepares to become the first female
space tourist. Now a multi-millionaire in the U.S., Ansari has secured a flight in a
Russian Soyuz rocket to the international space station.
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The
Best (and Worst) Destinations for Women Worldwide. [USA Today] As avid
travelers, it's hard for either of us to say which countries are "good" or
"bad" for women to visit. We don't want to give any one place an advantage over
the next, since so much of traveling is what you put into it. For every horror story,
there's one of jubilation and acceptance, and for every cab ride from hell, there's a tale
of someone being welcomed home for an authentic local meal.
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- Global Epidemic of
Female Smokers Concerns Experts. [Voice of America] Smoking among women is
rising sharply at the same time rates among men are falling. A new report called Turning a
New Leaf: Women, Tobacco and the Future calls attention to the health threat that tobacco
use is posing to women in the 21st century. 12% of the world's women smoke and by 2025,
the projection is 20% if current trend continues.
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- Fighting Fistula. [International
Herald Tribune] Fistula is a terrible childbirth injury, a hole in the birth canal
that leaves women incontinent and ashamed. Most of its victims are young, poor,
malnourished women living in remote areas of Africa and Asia. Many of them are teenage
girls, many of them married, many of them too young to be pregnant in the first place. But
why are young teenage girls getting pregnant at all? Why are older women taking the risk
of yet another pregnancy when their bodies are weakened by childbirth, anemia and
malnutrition? The answer is: They may have little choice. Despite years of effort, most
women in Africa and many in Asia do not yet have access to family planning. Older men
marry young girls who have no control over their bodies. One result is that more than two
million women today are living with fistula and its consequences. There may be another
50,000 to 100,000 new cases every year.
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- Different
Forms of Human Slavery. [renewamerica.us] Slavery thrives in the rug loom
sheds of Nepal; the sex-slavery brothels of Manila, Thailand, Japan and the U.S.; the
water-carrier chattel in Mauritania; the charcoal-making camps of Brazil; child
prostitution in Ecuador; and child camel-jockey riding for the wealthy Sheikhs in United
Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. Of those 17,500 victims trafficked into the
U.S. each year, it is estimated that 80% are female, and 50% of the females are children.
Of those females, 70% end up as slaves in brutal sexual exploitation of various types.
They are forced to work as slave prostitutes, who pay off the debts imposed by their
organized smugglers, debts ranging from $40,000 to $60,000 per woman or child. They are
forced to pay exorbitant monthly expenses while performing 4,000 acts of sexual
intercourse each year to meet their quota, at $10 to $25 per act. After two to five years,
if they are not already sick or dying, they may possibly be freed from their debt as long
as their quota has been met.
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