From Sindh Today:Four Nepali women, three of whom were being trafficked to Muscat, have been arrested from Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district, officials said here Sunday.
One of the four women was part of a human trafficking gang and she was taking the other three to Muscat. They were nabbed by the anti-human trafficking cell of the police from the railway station Saturday evening while they were headed to New Delhi, from where they were to take a flight to Muscat, an official said.
They were caught with the help of NGO Manav Seva Sansthan, which aids the police in curbing human trafficking.
A couple of months ago, police in Gorakhpur had arrested five Nepali women along with a pimp who was trying to send them to the Middle East.
From Nisreen Zahreddine @ Kuwait Times:MP Maasouma Al-Mubarak recently gave a speech at the British Business Forum's annual gathering, which was hosted by the British Embassy. MP Al-Mubarak touched on the history of Kuwait and the role of the United Kingdom in designing the borders between Kuwait and Iraq.
The parliamentarian said that in 1913, the British helped Kuwait separate from Iraq by signing a treaty with the Ottoman Empire that considered Kuwait a part of Iraq.
In 1932, Al-Mubarak continued, a second treaty was signed to design borders between Kuwait and Iraq. The MP then briefed the audience about women's history in Kuwait. She discussed several obstacles facing women's progress in Kuwaiti society, such as a backward mentality and limited employment opportunities in addition to all the norms and traditions that see the role of women to be limited to the house and raising children. She added that women were forced to pay the high price of social customs and traditions that control the society.
From Space:For the first time, China has included women among the final candidates for the country's newest class of astronauts.
The China National Space Agency is in the process of selecting its second batch of astronaut candidates, and has narrowed down the pool to 30 men and 15 women, the official state news agency Xinhua reported Thursday. Ultimately, China plans to pick five men and two women as final candidates to join the country's space program as taikonauts.
The 45 preliminary candidates for the second class of Chinese spaceflyers are between the ages of 27 and 34, and all are Air Force pilots for the People's Liberation Army. The male candidates are all fighter pilots and the female candidates are aero-transport pilots, authorities said. Some flew rescue missions after the massive Wenchuan earthquake in May 2008 in China's Sichuan province.
From Dan MacDougall @ Times Online:A group of young women is standing up to the mafia in its Sicilian heartland by refusing to contribute towards the £130m a year it demands from businesses on the island in protection money.
Five years ago businesses banded together to fight the mob and founded Addiopizzo, meaning Goodbye Pizzo — a reference to the notorious 10% levy imposed on the entire business community by the Cosa Nostra. At first Addiopizzo’s members were forced to remain anonymous, fearing reprisals. Now the women are coming out of the shadows.
The group is preparing to ask tourists and locals alike to support those business that refuse to pay off the gangsters.
It has the support of 300 firms in and around Palermo, including hotels, bars, restaurants and even a bank. Women, who make up 60% of the membership, have proved to be among its most courageous members.
From Bruce Hill @ Radio Australia:Tonga's parliament has decided not to ratify an international convention outlawing discrimination against women. It voted 18 to 1 with 4 abstentions to not ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, or CEDAW. The Tongan prime minister's office says he Legislative Assembly believed that to ratify CEDAW would cut across the cultural and social heritage that makes up the Tongan way of life, which is not based on individual rights and freedoms, but on the individual's relationship with the extended family and the wider community.
From Urmee Khan @ the Telegraph:Mark Thompson, the Director General of the BBC, has promised to put more older women on television following the backlash after axing Arlene Phillips from Strictly Come Dancing.
Thousands of viewers complained to the broadcaster about perceived ‘ageism’ as 30 year old Alesha Dixon, a pop star who won the competition in 2007, was brought in.
BBC One recently bought back Anne Robinson, 64, as the host of consumer programme Watchdog and Jay Hunt, the controller of BBC One, said that Victoria Wood would be returning to present a one hour Christmas special.
Television insiders have speculated that names such as Moira Stewart, Kate Adie, and Sheila Hancock could suddenly be in the mix.
Article by Alan Mozes in Yahoo News:It's a photo that many credit with helping to end the Vietnam War: A 9-year-old girl, naked and in obvious pain, runs through a street after suffering napalm burns over much of her body.
What the iconic photo -- snapped in 1972 by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut -- doesn't show is the girl's struggle to survive and thrive in the aftermath of that day.
Now 46 years old, Kim Phuc Phan Thai (Kim Phuc to most) spoke recently at a conference of burn survivors and burn care specialists in New York City on the physical and psychological struggle that she went through over the ensuing decades.
Phuc has come far and is now a public speaker, peace activist, United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, child welfare advocate, married mother of two, and inspiration to burn injury survivors worldwide. She lives in Toronto, her home since seeking political asylum in Canada in the early 1990s.
This week from the Blogosphere:
From the GOV Monitor:Thirteen extraordinary women are quietly making history in the most conservative corner of Afghanistan.Fearlessly, the first thirteen female Afghan National Police recruits in Helmand Province now stand shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts in their fight against crime and the Taliban insurgency.
Fighting the Taliban on a daily basis is a dangerous job, but these women have the added burden of having to work undercover, terrified that their neighbours and, in some cases, their families might find out what they do with potentially lethal consequences.
