North Korea ‘Holds US Reporters’
3/19/09
BBC: North Korean soldiers have detained two female US journalists on the China-North Korea border, media reports say.

Teenage Birthrate Increases For Second Consecutive Year
3/19/09
Washington Post: The rate at which teenage girls in the United States are having babies has risen for a second year in a row, government statistics show, putting one of the nation’s most successful social and public health campaigns in jeopardy.

Q&A: Women Better, But Far From Equal
3/18/09
IPS: Denying women access to political and economic power is a “strategic waste”, says Saadia Zahidi, co-author of the WEF’s Global Gender Gap (GGG) report in a telephone interview from Geneva.

Save The Chronicle!
3/18/09
San Francisco Bay Guardian: Hearst should not be allowed to turn San Francisco into the first major American city with no major daily newspaper

Imprisoned Journalist’s Father Says She’s Upset
3/19/09
AP via Google: The father of imprisoned Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi says she is upset and frustrated that she is still being held in Iran, where she may be in prison for at least two more weeks while the government shuts down for the Iranian New Year.

Ex-Playboy CEO Christie Hefner On Lilly Ledbetter, Women In The Workforce And Political Aspirations
3/18/09
wowOwow: Former Playboy CEO Christie Hefner has a lot to say about the state of women in the economy.

In Turnaround, U.S. Signs U.N. Gay Rights Document
3/18/09
Reuters: The United States, in a reversal of Bush administration policy, has decided to sign on to a U.N. declaration that calls for the decriminalization of homosexuality, the State Department said on Wednesday.

Teenage Girls Stand By Their Man
3/18/09
NY Times: While thousands of teenagers have certainly turned on Mr. Brown, many others – regardless of race or gender – defend him, often at Rihanna’s expense.

Gay Marriage Gets Recognition In The Dictionary
3/18/09
AP via USA Today: Same-sex marriage might not be recognized in most states, but it is in the dictionary.

Reports Of Sexual Assaults In US Military Increased In 2008
3/18/09
voice of America: The U.S. military says the number of sexual assaults reported in America’s armed forces increased by eight percent in 2008, and more than half of these cases involved rape. 

Exemptions From Military Service: Mothers In The Military And Fathers At Home?
3/19/09
RH Reality Check: Should the Army have exempted a mother from active-duty service because she has two young children, when her husband could have cared for them?

Groups Slam U.S. Immigration Officials On Medical Care for Detainees
3/18/09
USA Today: Women particularly suffered because routine reproductive care didn’t get adequate attention in a system that emphasized emergency care and treating conditions that might affect detainees’ deportation status

Girl Scouts Battle With One Of Their Own
3/18/09
NY Times: Wild, a girl scout from Asheville, N.C., set out in January with the goal of selling 12,000 boxes of cookies. Her father’s first impulse was to have her advertise her mission online.  The resulting stir has drawn publicity across the country.

Philippine Women’s Groups Say There’s A Plot To Free U.S. Marine Convicted Of Rape
3/19/09
LA Times: Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith was convicted in 2006. Now the alleged rape victim has recanted and moved to the U.S. Philippine women’s activists charge that authorities are conspiring to set Smith free.

Woman Among Two Favourites For Slovak Presidency
3/19/09
AP via Google: A woman is among the two front-runners of the upcoming presidential election in Slovakia, a former communist country with a conservative tradition linked to a strong Catholic influence.

POLITICS: Form Of New U.N. Women’s Entity Still Nebulous
3/18/09
IPS:  When a high-level panel of former political leaders and senior government officials released a study in late 2006 on ways to eliminate duplication and strengthen coordination among the U.N.’s myriad bodies, it also recommended the creation of a specialised agency for women aimed at consolidating gender-related activities under a single umbrella.

RELIGION-PAKISTAN: Bombing Closes Shrine Off For Women
3/19/09
IPS:  Few women are visiting the mausoleum of the famous 17th century mystic poet Abdul Rehman Baba since suspected Pakistani Taliban bombed it.

Watching A Dream Come True, For REAL! 
3/19/09
RH Reality Check: Tuesday on Capitol Hill Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Senator Frank Lautenburg re-introduced the REAL Act, federal legislation that would for the first time in history put federal dollars toward comprehensive sex education.

Mothers Should Not Die Giving Life
3/19/09
Women’s eNews: Millennium Development Goal No. 5–improving maternal health–is way off target. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem outlines the dimensions of a problem and on March 25 readers are invited to join a global online chat about the range of solutions.

Players Perspectives Across Women’s Basketball
3/19/09
AP via International Herald Tribune: The past few weeks have been full of ups and downs. It began on senior night when we faced the Michigan Wolverines.