Feminists Stage ‘SlutWalk’ Protest in Boston

Holding signs and chanting “We love sluts!” approximately 2,000 protesters marched Saturday in Boston, as the city officially become the latest to join an international series of protests against sexism and rape, known as “SlutWalks.”




As with any of these organized marches drummed up by the left, the protesters were supplied with list of snappy little chants to scream at the top of their lungs.  A little on-line investigation uncovered the chants.  Aren’t they clever:

Police: Mothers strangle their 2 newly married daughters in honour killing in northern India

May 15, 2011

NEW DELHI - Two Muslim mothers in a northern Indian town have been arrested on accusations they killed their daughters for dishonouring the family by eloping with Hindu men, police said Sunday.

Newlyweds Zahida, 19, and Husna, 26, were strangled when they returned home after getting married to men of their choice, said Anil Kumar Kusan, a police officer.

Marriages between Hindus and Muslims are not common in Indiaand are frowned upon by both communities, although there are more instances of inter-religious marriages among the educated urban population.

Across India, many marriages are still arranged by families. But with the booming economy and more women entering the work force, such traditions are slowly giving way to love marriages.

However, centuries-old caste and community barriers still come into play, and there has been a spurt in "honour killings" in recent years across northern India.

Zahida and Husna were neighbours in Baghpat, a town in India's Uttar Pradesh state, when they fell in love with two construction workers. They eloped and got married last week before returning home to make peace with their families, Kusan said.

The women belonged to Muslim families and their mothers, both widows, were furious, Kusan said.

Initial investigations showed that the mothers helped each other to strangle their daughters.

"We killed them because they brought shame to our community. How could they elope with Hindus? They deserved to die. We have no remorse," Khatun, one of the mothers, was quoted as saying by the Indian Express newspaper after her arrest Friday. Khatun uses only one name.

Earlier this week, India's Supreme Court recommended the death penalty for honour killings, calling the practice barbaric and feudal.

Most victims of such killings are young adults who fall in love or marry against their families' wishes. In some cases, village councils order couples killed who marry outside their caste or religion.

While there are no official figures, an independent study found around 900 people are killed each year in India for defying their elders.

IMF boss faces sex charges, France in shock

May 15, 2011



NEW YORK/PARIS -- IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged with attempting to rape a New York hotel maid, in a scandal that appeared to wreck his hopes of running for president of France and to open questions over his leadership of the global lender.
The charges on Sunday threatened to create a leadership vacuum at the IMF, overseer of the global economy, and threw wide open the French presidential election next April, for which opinion polls had made Strauss-Kahn the front-runner.
The 62-year-old Socialist, a key player in the response to the 2007-09 global financial crisis and to Europe's debt woes, was taken off an Air France plane minutes before it left for Paris from John F Kennedy International Airport on Saturday.
A hotel maid, 32, alleged Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her in his $3,000-a-night suite at the upscale Sofitel in Times Square on Saturday, police spokesman Paul Browne said. The IMF chief was charged with a criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment and attempted rape.
"She told detectives he came out of the bathroom naked, ran down a hallway to the foyer where she was, pulled her into a bedroom and began to sexually assault her, according to her account," Browne told Reuters.
"She pulled away from him and he dragged her down a hallway into the bathroom where he engaged in a criminal sexual act, according to her account to detectives. He tried to lock her into the hotel room."
Strauss-Kahn is expected to go before a state court later on Sunday. One of his lawyers, Benjamin Brafman, told Reuters his client "will plead not guilty."
Browne said the head of the International Monetary Fund does not have diplomatic immunity and appeared to have fled the hotel after the incident, leaving his cell phone behind.


FRANCE IN SHOCK


The arrest caused shock and disbelief in France.
"The news we received from New York last night struck like a thunderbolt," said Socialist leader Martine Aubry, appealing for party unity.
Francois Bayrou, a centrist opponent of Strauss-Kahn, said: "All this is completely astounding, immensely troubling and distressing. If the facts prove true ... it's something degrading for all women. It's terrible for France's image."
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said her rival's presidential hopes had been crushed. Strauss-Kahn and Le Pen have led recent opinion polls ahead of conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, even though the IMF chief had yet to declare his candidacy.
In a statement, the Fund declined to comment on the case, saying only that it "remains fully functioning and operational."
Greek officials said the arrest would not affect the country's fiscal reforms but could cause some short-term delays in discussions over the EU/IMF bailout, in which Strauss-Kahn was involved.
Germany's finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said a meeting on Monday to discuss the euro zone's bailout plans would move ahead as scheduled.
The IMF said its No. 2 official, John Lipsky, would step in as acting chief and it named another official to attend Monday's meeting in Brussels.


WARNINGS OF "MEDIA CIRCUS"


Strauss-Kahn's wife Anne Sinclair, a celebrity in her own right as a former television interviewer, appealed for "restraint and decency."
"I do not believe for a single second the accusations leveled against my husband," she said in a statement. "I do not doubt his innocence will be established."
One of the IMF chief's French-based lawyers, Leon Lef Forster, similarly warned of the risk of "a media circus."
According to New York state law, a criminal sexual act carries a potential sentence of 15-20 years, the same as attempted rape. Unlawful imprisonment carries a potential sentence of three to five years.
The allegation is a major embarrassment to the IMF, which has authorized billions of dollars of lending to troubled countries and played a major role in the euro zone debt crisis.


PRESIDENTIAL BID
Popularly known by his initials DSK, the IMF managing director had been expected to declare by late June if he would run for president of France. The latest opinion polls ranked him as a clear winner over conservative incumbent Sarkozy.
"The case and the charges ... mark the end of his campaign and pre-campaign for the presidency and will most likely prompt the IMF to ask him to leave his post," National Front leader Le Pen told i-Tele television.
Even Strauss-Kahn's political allies were pessimistic.
"The most likely outcome is that this case will stick and even if he pleads not guilty, which he may be, he won't be able to be candidate for the Socialist primary for the presidency and he won't be able to stay at the IMF,"said prominent Socialist Jacques Attali.
The IMF board was scheduled to meet later on Sunday to discuss the developments.
If Strauss-Kahn were out of the presidential race, leading candidates for the Socialist presidential ticket include party leader Aubry, left-wing veteran Francois Hollande and Segolene Royal, the candidate beaten by Sarkozy in 2007.


NO STRANGER TO CONTROVERSY
The woman who filed the complaint was treated in hospital for minor injuries, police spokesman Browne said. She has not been named.
The French consul general met Strauss-Kahn overnight under the normal rules of protection for French citizens detained abroad, a spokeswoman for the consulate in New York said.
Strauss-Kahn took over the IMF in November 2007 for a five-year term scheduled to end next year. Before that, he was a French finance minister, member of the French National Assembly and a professor of economics.
He has faced controversy before. In 2008, he apologized for "an error of judgment" after an affair with a female IMF economist who was his subordinate. An inquiry cleared him of harassment and abuse of power, but he was warned by the Fund's board of member countries against further improper conduct.
His arrest follows an announcement on Thursday that his deputy Lipsky would step down in August when his term ends.
A crisis of leadership at the Fund would especially worry European nations, given Strauss-Kahn's pivotal role in brokering bailouts for Iceland, Hungary, Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
"The chances are the successor won't be a European, and will want to rebalance the IMF's priorities away from its massive commitment in Europe," said Jean Pisani-Ferry, director of the Bruegel economic think-tank.Strauss-Kahn had been due to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday and join euro zone finance ministers in Brussels on Monday to discuss the bloc's debt crisis and how to handle Greece, which is struggling to meet the terms of the joint IMF-EU bailout it received last year.
"This might definitely cause some delays in the short term," a Greek official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "Strauss-Kahn had a very good knowledge of Greece's situation."
Since taking over the IMF, the Frenchman has won praise for putting it at the center of efforts to tackle the global financial meltdown. He introduced sweeping changes to ensure countries swamped by the crisis had access to emergency loans.
He has overseen changes that have given emerging market countries, such as China, India and Brazil, greater voting power in the IMF, and weighed into thornier issues by urging China to let its currency rise in a dispute with the United States.

NYC couple who split house with wall get divorce

April 28, 2011

 A feuding New York City couple who built a wall through their house, because neither one would give it up, has finally been granted a divorce.

A judge had ordered Simon and Chana Taub to build the wall in their brownstone, because both refused to move.

At the time, New York state didn't allow the speedy dissolution of a marriage without proof that one spouse was at fault, and neither of the Taubs would admit to fault.

The couple filed for divorce in 2005, but a jury rejected it.

The judge on Wednesday also ordered the Taubs to sell their brownstone and two other homes and divide the proceeds.

Simon Taub's lawyer said his client was happy with the decision. Chana Taub told the Media she would appeal.

Female reporter wrongly barred at Augusta

Apr 10, 2011

A female reporter was denied access to the locker room to interview Rory McIlroy after Sunday’s final round of the Masters, though it was later revealed as a misunderstanding by a security official.

A Masters media staff member apologized Sunday to Tara Sullivan, a columnist for the Bergen (N.J.) Record, after she was barred by security personnel from entering the player’s locker room for an interview because she was a woman. At least a dozen male reporters were granted access to the locker room following Sunday’s final round of the Masters.

“I was told that is not the policy of Augusta National [to deny women access],” Sullivan said of a conversation two hours later with a media staff member for the tournament.

Augusta National refused to make an immediate statement.

Sullivan said she was told by two security personnel, one of whom was female, that she was not allowed into the locker room when a larger group of media went to speak with McIlroy. All reporters are supposed to have access to the room, according to Masters media policy.

“I was told women were not allowed in the locker room,” she said.

Sullivan said she planned on interviewing McIlroy in a traditional area under the big tree in front of the clubhouse. McIlroy didn’t stop and Sullivan said she followed the golfer with a pack of reporters into the clubhouse and down the hall to the locker room.

“It was not anyone in a green jacket,” Sullivan said, speaking of the members of Augusta National. “They were two white-shirted security personnel.

“I didn’t create any problems at all. There weren’t any officials there. This was a security person, it’s not her policy. So I went outside.”

Sullivan said she was told by Steve Ethun of the Masters media committee that, “it was a complete misunderstanding by the tournament week security and [I] should have rightfully been given access per the standard practices of major sporting events.”

Equal access to locker rooms for female reporters has been an issue for decades, although most professional and college organizations have set policies. Women have been allowed access to the Masters locker room since 1985.

Sullivan said male reporters provided a transcript to McElroy’s comments. Sullivan has been a professional journalist for two decades. This is her fourth time covering the Masters.

Royal finances: Will Kate be signing a prenup?

Apr. 4, 2011

British divorce lawyers have words of warning for Prince William: Not all fairy tales have happy endings.

The prince is set to wed his longtime love Kate Middleton on April 29, but if history is any guide, divorce lawyers say the second-in-line to the British throne would be well advised to sign a prenuptial agreement.

"It's an absolute statistical no-brainer that a prenuptial agreement would be highly beneficial in this case," said divorce lawyer James Stewart from the firm Manches, which handled the multimillion divorce case between Madonna and director Guy Ritchie.

Britain's royal family has been plagued by a string of failed marriages. Three of Queen Elizabeth II's four children have been divorced, and William's uncle on his mother's side, Charles Spencer, has two ex-wives.

Prince William's office declined to comment on whether the future king might sign a premarital contract.

Although prenuptial agreements are common in the United States, in Britain they remain rare for most couples — never mind the royal family. British courts agreed to recognize such deals only in the last year after a slew of high-profile divorce awards gave London a reputation as the "divorce capital of the world."

Stewart said Britain's royals need to recognize that when it comes to divorce, they're just like commoners under U.K. law. And with large amounts of royal wealth most likely tied up in trusts, which can be hard to get access to, it's important to hammer out the details now just in case, he says.

"In the 21st century, there is a real need for any couple in the public arena to enter into a properly drawn up prenup," Stewart said.

One need look no further than the very ugly — and public — split between William's parents, Princess Diana and Prince Charles. The prince's former financial adviser, Geoffrey Bignell, told Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper in 2004 that Diana "took him to the cleaners," and claimed that Charles handed over his entire personal fortune — widely reported to be more than 17 million pounds ($27 million today) — when their marriage ended after 15 years in 1996.

But it is by no means certain an ex-wife will clean up. Following her 1996 divorce from Prince Andrew after 10 years of marriage, Sarah Ferguson complained that her reported 800,000 pound ($1.3 million today) settlement was meager. Years later, she is believed to have hired Diana's attorney to negotiate a much bigger divorce settlement after dealing with crushing debt.

But even that history doesn't mean the royals will think twice: Charles is widely reported to have ignored legal advice and opted to go without a prenup when he wed his second wife, Camilla, in 2005.

While some say it's tacky to talk about divorce at such a happy time as a wedding, doing so is a necessary evil, said Matthew Brunsdon Tully, a professor of family law at the London School of Economics and practicing divorce attorney.

Divorce can be costly, time-consuming, stressful and public — all symptoms that a prenup can help alleviate, giving a sense of security to both sides, he said.

"A prenup might be seen as anathema to the idea that the marriage vow is supposed to be for life ... but you can't ignore the statistics," said Brunsdon Tully. With divorce rates at all-time highs "it's probably prudent of people to at least consider what might happen."

So what's at stake?

William stands to gain an inheritance from the queen, whose fortune was recently estimated at around 290 million pounds ($467 million) by the Sunday Times 2010 "Rich List." The second-in-line to the British throne also got a share of his Diana's nearly $34 million estate — the bulk of which came from her divorce settlement, but it is believed much of his money is tied up in trusts.

Middleton comes from an well-off family herself but any agreement would need to ensure she is looked after, keeping up her homes and her standard of living, experts said. It would most likely be generous to ensure the prenup is not challenged as unfair after a divorce.

"They would want to make sure that things are done by the book to keep it out of the public arena," said Brunsdon Tully.

A confidentiality clause also would be a must, Stewart added, noting that "the last thing this family would want" would be a scintillating interview — akin to one given by Diana just before the divorce — that exposes the royal family's inner workings.

"Kate is joining a family known as 'The Firm,' and every other employee of the royal household has a contract of employment which includes a fairly severe gagging clause," Stewart noted.

Other European royals have signed prenups. Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria signed a prenuptial agreement with her husband and former personal trainer Daniel Westling that says that he would only be entitled to half of the couple's private household possessions in a divorce — not Victoria's inheritance or her income.

Despite any alleged advantages, London-based celebrity divorce lawyer Raymond Tooth isn't convinced William and Middleton will sign a contingency plan. He noted that they have known each other for a long time, saying "it's not a whirlwind recent romance" at risk of suddenly falling apart.

Besides, Tooth thinks if a deal was signed, there would be rumors by now.

"It would have leaked out if there was one," Tooth said. "Nothing is secret anymore."

Cops: Woman, 92, kills 98-year-old husband

Apr 3, 2011

 A 92-year-old has become the oldest woman committed to stand trial for murder in Australia, accused of bludgeoning and stabbing her wealthy 98-year-old husband to death, according to a report.

Clara Tang, who allegedly killed Ching Yung Tang after 70 years of marriage in their Sydney apartment in March last year, has pleaded not guilty on the grounds of mental illness, the Sun-Herald said.

The elderly woman appeared in a local court last week and was ordered to stand trial in the Supreme Court on a date to be fixed.

Documents tendered by police reportedly detailed how the couple survived the Japanese invasion of China and Mao's Cultural Revolution before moving from Shanghai to Sydney 30 years ago.

Tang, who suffers dementia, allegedly feared her husband was poisoning her food.

The newspaper said that when arrested, Tang was almost totally soaked in blood. Her husband had been stabbed twice in the stomach and his head was bludgeoned.

She was initially refused bail due to "the level of violence used and for the protection of the community", but police relented with Tang put under strict supervision in a nursing home ahead of her trial.

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Allu Arjun's Dowry Details Leaked

Mar 22, 2011


Allu Arjun is marrying Sneha Reddy in the manner of ‘na bhootho na bhavishyathi’. The guests are not finding enough time to enjoy every corner that was aesthetically carved at the marriage hall. It is obvious that people tend to know how much must have this rich Arjun’s father in law paid his son in law as dowry. When the details were known people are opening their mouths in awe.

Well, don’t imagine bigger things and end in dreams.

Sneha’s father asked Aravind to demand whatever he wants. But Aravind cozily said, “I don’t want single penny. My daughter in law can just step into our family even without a suit case. Our entire property is hers once she gets the knots by my son. We are already drowned in properties. Let us not bring the aspect of money but step ahead to unite”.

Listening to that Sneha’s father got highly elated and decided to perform the marriage in unbeatable mode. Looking at the arrangements, dishes and glory at the marriage hall many are unanimously saying this is one of best marriages performed in recent times. Sneha is really lucky. And Arjun too for getting a wife of such a great ‘gracy’ look.

Misuse of 498a dowry harassment laws Shonee kapoor drill Pinky Anand-feminists-loksabha tv

Mar 10, 2011



Join the Social Activism to save the crumbling indian family system and fight against gender biased indian draconian laws
visit
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saveindianfamily/
http://www.saveindianfamily.org
http://498a.org
http://ghrs.in/
http://mynation.net/
http://www.498a.org.in/
http://498amisuse.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/498amisuse-judgements/
http://www.crisp-india.org/