Lindy Chamberlain: Case Revisited 30 Years On

From the New Zealand Herald:

It was Australia's most celebrated murder case, dividing the nation and igniting fierce debate even years on.

Now it has emerged that the jury at Lindy Chamberlain's trial was similarly spilt - and, as in the wider community, the women were more convinced of her guilt than the men.

According to a 30-year-old police file, all three female jurors believed that Chamberlain killed her baby daughter, Azaria, who disappeared from the family's tent near Uluru (then called Ayers Rock) in 1980. At least four of the nine men, by contrast, had to be persuaded to return a guilty verdict.

In a hitherto secret record of the jury's deliberations, the foreman wrote of one woman: "Doesn't believe dingo" - a reference to Chamberlain's claim that a dingo snatched Azaria from their tent.

Sentenced to life at the end of the seven-week trial in Darwin in 1982, Chamberlain was released three years later following the discovery of her baby's matinee jacket at the base of Uluru. Her conviction was overturned in 1988.

The jury's notes, salvaged from 145 boxes of police documents and exhibits relating to the case, were reported in News Ltd newspapers yesterday.

Patricia Neal

From BBC News:

Oscar-winning US actress Patricia Neal has died aged of 84 from lung cancer.

Neal won an Academy Award for her role in the 1963 film Hud, but gave up acting two years later at the age of 39 after suffering a series of strokes.

But she returned to the screen after rehabilitation to earn a further Oscar and several Emmy nominations.

The star, who was born in Tennessee, was married to author Roald Dahl for 30 years and is the grandmother of model and TV presenter Sophie Dahl.

Afghanistan: Women of the New Army

From the Telegraph:

For the first time since the dark days of the Taliban, 29 women have been recruited to serve in the Afghan army.

Once qualified, they will work in combat support units alongside male soldiers. Although many of the women hope, eventually, to be deployed on the front line, their initial roles will be office-based. They will be assigned key duties in the running of military bases, particulary relation to equipment procurement and supply.

Although women have served in the Afghan army in the past this is the first time that officer training has been available to them – part of a plan to make the number of female soldiers 10 per cent of the total.

Amnesty Unimpressed By "Action"

From the NZ Herald:

Amnesty International has condemned the Pacific Islands Forum leaders for being all talk and no action on reducing violence against Pacific women.

After the forum, which concluded in Vanuatu yesterday, Pacific leaders commended themselves for their action and acknowledged a recommendation to set up a reference group on gender-based violence in the future.

But Amnesty International said this was "weak and disappointing".

"Governments need to step up action," said Hannah Harborow, the Amnesty International Australia co-ordinator of the Stop Violence Against Women Campaign.

"Last year they pledged to eradicate gender-based violence. There hasn't been a lot of movement in the last 12 months. This year we wanted concrete facts about what they will do."

Pacific researcher Apolosi Bose said the forum was simply paying "lip service" to the issue. "Culture is often used as an excuse for inaction on this issue, but it is not a Pacific tradition to rape, torture, abuse or murder women and young girls."

Giant Panties Outsell G-Strings

From the Daily Telegraph:

THE bottom has fallen out of the g-string market as women swap them for gigantic waist-hugging underwear.

Sales of Waistnippers brand self-proclaimed "magic" panties are soaring in Britain due to the fashion for hourglass figures. Up to twice the size of normal undies, they trim the tummy and push out the hips and breasts, The Sun reports.

Sales of the panties -- made famous by 1960s fashions on TV drama "Mad Men" -- are up 42 percent in three months.

Lingerie chain Rigby and Peller, which supplies Lady Gaga and Queen Elizabeth, said bigger panties outsell thongs two to one.

A Debenhams store spokeswoman said, "The only knickers to be seen in are sexy high-waist ones."

NZ: "Unfortunate Experiment" Memorial Missing

From the NZ Herald:

Women's health campaigners were horrified this week to discover that a plaque commemorating two of the whistle-blowers on the "unfortunate experiment" at National Women's Hospital has removed.

Thursday was the 22nd anniversary of the public release of the Cartwright Report on the inquiry into Dr Herbert Green's unethical study at the Auckland hospital into carcinoma of the cervix.

An Otago University study published in June found a 10-fold higher rate of cancer among women initially managed with small diagnostic biopsies during the study period, than among women given treatments intended to cure them.

To mark the anniversary, as they do every year, a small group of women gathered outside the former National Women's Hospital building in Epsom on Thursday to remember the women harmed by the study - and those harmed by the cervical screening failure in Gisborne in the 1990s.

They went to pay their respects at the plaque, at the other side of the building, which commemorates the work of two of the doctors who spoke out against the study, Jock McLean and Bill McIndoe.

The metal plaque, mounted on concrete, was placed by the Women's Health Action Trust in 1993.

Women-Only Gaza Flotilla

From the Guardian:

A ship bearing aid for Gaza is preparing to leave Tripoli in Lebanon this weekend in the latest attempt to defy the Israeli blockade – with only women on board.

The Saint Mariam, or Virgin Mary, has a multi-faith international passenger list, including the Lebanese singer May Hariri and a group of nuns from the US. "They are nuns, doctors, lawyers, journalists, Christians and Muslims," said Mona, one of the participants who, along with the other women, has adopted the ship's name, Mariam.

The Mariam and its sister ship, Naji Alali, had hoped to set off several weeks ago but faced several delays after Israel launched a diplomatic mission to pressure Lebanon to stop the mission.

The co-ordinator of the voyage, Samar al-Haj, told the Guardian this week the Lebanese government had given permission for the boats to leave for Cyprus, the first leg of the journey, this weekend.

Women of the Wall Continue Fight

From JTA:

Women of the Wall has launched a global campaign to support their right to pray with Torah scrolls at the Western Wall.

The Jerusalem-based group wants 10,000 Jewish women around the world to send photos of themselves holding Torah scrolls to key Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky. The campaign is to show that Jewish women are free to hold Torah scrolls everywhere except at the Wall, Judaism’s most holy site.

The campaign was inspired by the July 12 arrest of the group’s leader, Anat Hoffman, who was taken into custody for holding a Torah scroll at the Wall. An Israeli Supreme Court ruling forbids women reading from a Torah scroll at the site.

The photos are being sent with a message that reads, in part:

“Women of the Wall are not alone. Our daughters and our rabbis, our mothers and our grandmothers, our cantors and our teachers hold the Torah, read from the Torah, and study the Torah every day … Only in Jerusalem do women pray with fear and only in Jerusalem are women treated as criminals for practicing Judaism.”

The campaign began after Tisha b’Av on July 19 and extends through Simchat Torah, which ends Oct 1.

UK: Girl Guides Petition Against Airbrushing

From Children & Young People Now:

Young members of Girlguiding UK have launched a petition today (4 August) urging Prime Minister David Cameron to introduce compulsory labelling of digitally altered images in magazines and adverts.

Girlguiding UK will use the petition to lobby the government to enforce tighter control on the media’s use of airbrushed images. It believes that young girls who see these images are subjected to "unrealistic pressures" which can seriously damage their self-confidence.

The last annual Girlguiding UK Girls Attitude Survey published in July 2009 revealed that out of more than 1,000 girls half of those aged 16 to 21 would consider having cosmetic surgery to change their appearance. The survey also revealed that 42 per cent of girls aged 11 to 16 have tried dieting or cutting down on certain foods to improve how they look.

Natalie Fontaine, a Girlguiding member, warned: "Most of us have no idea how significantly these pictures are altered and young girls are shocked when they realise that the images they have of celebrities and models are not a reality. We think it is really important to highlight how serious this issue has become and demand action to protect all girls and young women."

Girlguiding UK has raised concerns that the use of airbrushed models and celebrities exposes young girls to body shapes that are "unobtainable" and that a more realistic picture of women’s bodies would make a big difference to young girls’ self-esteem.

Lucie Russell, director of campaigns at mental health charity YoungMinds, echoed this. "Girls and young women need to grow up feeling good about their bodies," she said. "Airbrushed images create an environment where girls are constantly comparing themselves to something that isn’t real and can’t be achieved. It only serves to make girls and young women feel bad about who they are, rather than secure and content. Compulsory labelling will help young women to see models’ and celebrities’ bodies as they really are and not the fantasy created by the industry."