International News

[lusciouskiwi]

Hi all, was looking for a thread to add about same-sex couples adopting in NZ but couldn't find one, so I thought I'd start an international thread. Should I see anything interesting from Asia, I'll add that as well.

Here's an article (and link) from Express Magazine, Aotearoa/New Zealand about adoption (http://www.gayexpress.co.nz/2012/07/...union-couples/)

The National party has passed a remit for the 1955 Adoption Act to be extended to couples in civil unions.
The remit was passed with a two-thirds majority at the National party’s annual conference yesterday.
It was pushed through by the youth wing of the party, the Young Nats.
Prime Minister John Key said while the remit showed the party is modernising, adoption reform was not high on its to-do list.
“Realistically it’s just not the biggest issue that we face. I know it’s important to those people, but they’re a very small group,” he said.
“We have a limited amount of house time that we can work through a limited number of issues… You have to think through the amount of parliamentary time that would be chewed up on that issue.”
The 1955 Adoption Act currently allows only legally married couples to adopt children.
Two separate bills that seek to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption, drafted by Labour MP Louisa Wall and Green MP Kevin Hague, are currently in the members’ bill ballot.

(p.s. our Prime Minister, John Key, is a self-serving rich d*ckhead)

[lusciouskiwi]

And on it goes - any LGBT Malaysian citizens should .... immigrate.

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/cat...8138#f3b8248ef

[lusciouskiwi]

Australian lawmakers on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected a Labor MP's bill that would have legalised same-sex marriage ...

http://www.fridae.asia/newsfeatures/...iality-remarks

[lusciouskiwi]

From China:

The country's first transsexual twin sisters are expected to complete their surgeries and have their registered gender changed at the police, said the younger of the two, who will be discharged from a local hospital this week.

http://english.people.com.cn/90782/7938279.html

[lusciouskiwi]

This organisation, Family First, think it's funny to talk about incest, pedophilia and same-sex marriage in the same breath. I just watched most of their promotional video - the guy heading the organisation is very clever. Getting the name of FF out there in the media and lulling people into thinking that it's an organisation who's goals are sensible. And also what's interesting, for those of you interested in representation in media, that all of the people featured in the promotional video are Maori or Pacific Islanders. Hmmmm, wonder what the target it?

[lusciouskiwi]

Very short interview from protesters in Kuala Lumpur regarding the comments on how to identify a child who is gay or lesbian.



[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZafhxn6DKM&feature=player_embedded"]Protests over Malaysia advice on gay 'symptoms' - YouTube[/nomedia]

[Reader]

14-year-old activist Malala Yousafzai

Thousands rally in Karachi for Malala, 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot by Talibanhttp://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2...y-taliban?lite


14-year-old activist Malala Yousafzai

A Pakistani woman shouts slogans during a protest march against the assassination attempt by the Taliban on 14-year-old activist Malala Yousafzai, in Karachi on Sunday. Malala is making "slow and steady progress" in her recovery, the military said.

[ruffryder]

IAF Targets Terrorists While South Under Missile Barrage
http://unitedwithisrael.org



The Israeli Air Force has been targeting terrorists who have fired over 40 rockets into southern Israel in the last month. They struck a terror cell which was on the way to a launching site to fire a missile into Israel – killing on and seriously injuring the second. In a separate strike, Israel killed the Palestinian leader of an al-Qaida-affiliated group in the Gaza Strip. Hisham Al-Saedni, also known as Abu Al-Waleed Al-Maqdissi, headed the Jihadist Salafi group Tawhid and Jihad (“One God and Holy War”). Sources have said that Saedni joined al-Qaida in Iraq at the beginning of the US-led invasion in 2003. An IDF source reported that this cell was involved in past terrorist attacks on Israel, and was in the last stages of preparing another attack.

One of the missile attacks on Israel exploded in the backyard of a family home in Netivot. Shrapnel from the rocket flew into the home and pierced the walls of a child’s bedroom. Thankfully, the child was not in the room and only one civilian was hospitalized for shock.

The IDF spokesman reacted by asking: “What if the child would have been there ?”

The air force has also targeted a terrorist center in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, a training camp belonging to Hamas’s Izzadin Kassam armed wing, and a terrorist tunnel in northern Gaza in recent days.

Pussy Riot news. Should have posted it on Friday.

Wed. 10 Oct 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012...=ILCNETTXT3487

Fri. 12 Oct 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012...vladimir-putin

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...yny-dictionary

Woohooo! Go Julia!!

The Australian Prime Minister launches an attack on the leader of the opposition about his repeated use of sexist language. The Macquarie dictionary is looking into amending it's entry under misogyny.

[Hollylane]

Brazil night club fire kills 230 in Santa Maria



At least 230 people have died in a fire that swept through a nightclub in a university city in southern Brazil, police and officials say.

Local media say the fire began when a band let off fireworks at the Kiss club in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul.

Many victims reportedly inhaled toxic fumes or were crushed as panicking clubbers tried to escape.

Bereaved families have gathered at the scene where the fire is out and bodies are being removed.

President Dilma Rousseff, who cut short a visit to Chile, has been visiting survivors at the city's Caridade hospital along with government ministers.

She said earlier that everything possible would be done to help the injured and the families of the victims.


"I would also like to say to the Brazilian people and to the people of Santa Maria that we stand together at this time, and that even though there's a lot of sadness, we will pull through," she said, speaking from Chile.

In a tweet, the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Tarso Genro, said it was a "sad Sunday" and that all possible action was being taken in response to the fire. He would be in the city later on Sunday, he added.

A firefighter told BBC News he had never seen such a tragedy in his life, with the victims "so young".



The priority for the authorities is now to identify the dead with many distressed relatives arriving at the scene, but in the hours ahead the focus will turn to the cause of this accident and safety procedures at the club, the BBC's Gary Duffy reports from Sao Paulo.

The death toll, which had earlier been put at 245, was revised down by fire officials. Emergency services said a further 117 people were being treated in hospital.
'Ceiling on fire'

The fire broke out some time after 02:00 (04:00 GMT) when between 300 and 500 people are believed to have been in the club, where a band was playing.

According to local newspaper Diario de Santa Maria, students from the city's federal university (UFSM) were holding a freshers' ball.

Thick smoke engulfed the venue after acoustic insulation caught fire, officials say.

"We looked up at the ceiling in front of the stage and it was catching fire," eyewitness Luana Santos Silva, 23, told Brazil's Globo TV.

"My sister grabbed me and dragged me out on the ground."

he exit, she said, was a "small door for lots of people to come out by".

The young woman's sister, Aline Santos Silva, 29, added: "We managed to see it in time and to get out quickly, before the smoke began to spread.

"The smoke spread really quickly, it didn't give enough time for people to get out. I think people started to feel unwell, and then they began to come out covered in black smoke stains."

The witness commended the emergency services: "Help arrived really quickly, ambulances, police."

Fire crews tried knocking through an exterior wall to help those trapped inside to escape.

Some 15 bodies were found in the club's toilets where people had apparently sought refuge, local reports said.

Speaking to BBC Brasil, Sergeant Arthur Rigue, from the local fire department, said: "I never witnessed a tragedy like this in my whole career.

"These people are so young… There were many bodies piled up in various parts of the place. Some were in the toilet. They died of asphyxiation."

Fire chief Guido de Melo told local media. "People started panicking and ended up treading on each other."
Identification

A temporary morgue has been set up in a local gym as the city's main morgue is unable to cope.

Family members have begun identifying the dead at the gym, Diario de Santa Maria reports.

They were led in one by one to see the bodies, according to the paper.

President Rousseff said the air force had made "resources" available at an air base near Santa Maria to help.

Santa Maria has a population of about 250,000 people, while UFSM has some 27,000 students.

Other nightclub fires

2009: Santika Club, Bangkok, Thailand - sparked by fireworks; 66 killed
2009: Lame Horse Club, Perm, Russia - sparked by fireworks; 150 killed
2004: Cromagnon Republic Club, Buenos Aires, Argentina - flare fire 194
2003: The Station, Rhode Island, US - sparked by fireworks; 100 killed
2000: Luoyang dance hall fire, China - fire blamed on welders kills 309
1996: Ozone Disco Club, Quezon City, Philippines - 160 killed
1990: Happy Land, New York, US - arson kills 89 at unlicensed club
1977: Beverly Hills Supper Club, Southgate, Kentucky - 165 killed
1970: Club 5-7, Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France - 146 killed;
1942: Cocoanut Grove, Boston, US - 492 killed

[Hollylane]

France's parliament approve gay marriage article

The French National Assembly has approved the most important article of a bill to legalise same-sex marriage.

Deputies voted 249-97 in favour of redefining marriage as being an agreement between two people - not just between a man and a woman.

President Francois Hollande's Socialists and their left-wing supporters backed it, opposed by the opposition UMP and many centrist MPs.

The proposals have generated protests and counter-protests for months.

Opinion polls suggest that around 55-60% of French people support gay marriage, though only about 50% approve of gay adoption.

The draft bill, which also includes provisions to allow gay couples to adopt children, marks one of France's biggest social reforms since the abolition of the death penalty in 1981.

It is expected that the legislation will reach the statue books by the middle of the year, AFP reports.

In September last year, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Lyon, argued that plans to redefine the concept of marriage would open the door to incest and polygamy.

The debate in the National Assembly is due to last throughout the weekend.

[Soon]

On Holding Hands and Fake Marriage: Stories of Being Gay in Russia

[Kobi]

By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer
January 17, 2014


While gay-rights activists celebrate gains in much of the world, their setbacks have been equally far-flung, and often sweeping in scope.

In Russia, a new law against "gay propaganda" has left gays and lesbians unsure of what public actions they can take without risking arrest. In India, gay-rights supporters were stunned by a recent high court ruling re-criminalizing gay sex. A newly signed law in Nigeria sets 10-year prison terms for joining or promoting any gay organization, while a pending bill in Uganda would impose life sentences for some types of gay sex.

In such countries, repression of gays is depicted by political leaders as a defense of traditional values. The measures often have broad support from religious leaders and the public, limiting the impact of criticism from outsiders. The upshot: A world likely to be bitterly divided over gay rights for years to come.

Globally, the contrasts are striking. Sixteen countries have legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, including Canada, South Africa, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and New Zealand as well as 10 European nations, and gay marriage is legal in parts of the United States and Mexico. Yet at least 76 countries retain laws criminalizing gay sex, including five where it's punishable by death.

Here's a look at major regions where the gay-rights movement
remains embattled or marginalized:

___


AFRICA:

According to human rights groups, more than two-thirds of African countries outlaw consensual same-sex acts, and discrimination and violence against gays, lesbians and transgender people is commonplace. While many of the laws date to the colonial era, opposition to homosexuality has gained increasing traction as a political tactic over the past two decades.

In 1995, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe — who's still in office — denounced gays and lesbians as "worse than pigs and dogs." He has since been joined by political and religious leaders continent-wide calling for punishments ranging from arrest to decapitation.

Africans promoting anti-gay legislation have expressed alarm about gains made by sexual minorities in the United States and Europe. They say laws such as the one newly signed in Nigeria can serve as a bulwark against Western pressure to enshrine gay rights.

In Liberia, for example, a religious group called the New Citizen Movement has spent the past year collecting signatures urging President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to sign a law banning same-sex marriage — even though, as in Nigeria, there has been no local movement to legalize it.

Rev. Cleopatra Watson, the group's executive director, said Nigeria's law was "a prayer answered" that could lead to the passage of similar legislation in other African countries.

From afar, Nigeria's new law has drawn harsh criticism from human rights groups, Western governments, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. However, support for anti-gay legislation presents few domestic political risks for African leaders, with polls suggesting most citizens believe sexual minorities are not entitled to basic civil rights.

In Cameroon, gay men are routinely sentenced to prison for gay sex, and in July a prominent gay activist, Eric Ohena Lembembe, was tortured and killed in an attack.

Gay-rights supporters nonetheless hold out hope for long-term change, suggesting that recent anti-gay rhetoric and laws were a response to an emergence of sustained gay-rights activism.

"If there weren't an increasingly effective movement, there would not be such a virulent backlash," said Neela Ghoshal, a researcher at Human Rights Watch.

___


ASIA:

The world's largest continent, Asia is a mixed bag when it comes to gay issues, due to vast differences in culture, religion and history. Though no Asian nation yet allows gay marriage, Thailand has a government-sponsored campaign to attract gay tourists, while China, Vietnam and Taiwan, among others, are increasingly accepting of gays and lesbians.

However, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Pakistan outlaw gay sex and, for the moment, so does India, following the recent decision of its high court to revive a ban on gay sex that had been quashed by a lower court in 2009. The high court said it's up to lawmakers, not judges, to change the law.

Amid the legal wrangling, gays and lesbians have gained a degree of acceptance in parts of India, especially in big cities where gay-pride parades are now a fixture. Many bars have gay nights, and some high-profile Bollywood films have dealt with gay issues.

In most of the country, however, being gay is seen as shameful, and many gays remain closeted.

Gautam Bhan, an Indian gay activist, said he was heartened by the vocal outcry against the high court ruling.

"There may be a backlash and reversals, but the long-term trend is toward openness, freedom and diversity," he said. "Eventually we will get past this law."

In majority-Muslim Malaysia, the government has shown no interest in promoting gay rights. Sodomy is punishable by 20 years in prison and whipping with a rattan cane, and censorship rules forbid the production and screening of films that might be considered supportive of gay rights.

Earlier this month, the Home Ministry declared a coalition of activist groups illegal, partly because they were deemed to have championed gay rights.

"Malaysia is at the worst end of the scale," said Grace Poore, a Malaysian who is Asia program coordinator for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. "They are targeting LGBT people because they are convenient scapegoats."

In heavily Muslim Indonesia, gay sex is not criminalized, and many young, urban Indonesians are relatively tolerant of homosexuality, but most citizens consider it unacceptable.

"Gay people are still living in fear," said King Oey, chairman of the country's main gay-rights group.

___


CARIBBEAN/LATIN AMERICA:

While the gay-rights movement has achieved major victories in some South American countries, gays remain targets of violence and harassment in parts of Central America and the Caribbean.

In Honduras, activists report a serious problem of violence against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. According to Human Rights Watch, more than 90 members of the LGBT community were killed between 2009 and 2012.

Several countries in the English-speaking Caribbean still have colonial-era laws criminalizing sex between men, including Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia and Dominica. Gays in Jamaica say they suffer frequent discrimination and abuse, and have little recourse because of widespread anti-gay stigma.

"Homophobia is expected, celebrated, culturally ingrained," said Dane Lewis, leader of the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All Sexuals and Gays.

Anti-gay sentiment is fueled by some church leaders who accuse gays of flaunting their behavior to "recruit" youngsters, and some stars of Jamaican dancehall music use gay-bashing lyrics to rouse concertgoers.

For gay tourists, the Caribbean is generally safe, but not always. Masked gunmen broke into a vacation cottage in St. Lucia in 2011 and beat three gay Americans while making anti-gay slurs. In 2006, two gay men from New York were assaulted outside a bar in Dutch St. Maarten; one of the victims sustained brain damage.

In Cuba, homosexuality was frowned on in the early decades after Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. Gays were commonly harassed by police, sent to work camps or dismissed from government jobs. Some fled into exile.

More recently, Castro apologized for the persecution. His niece, Mariela Castro, the daughter of current President Raul Castro, is a leading activist for LGBT rights on the island and has lobbied, so far unsuccessfully, for same-sex marriage.

___


EASTERN EUROPE:

Russia's law banning "gay propaganda" has drawn extensive criticism abroad, but seems to be widely accepted at home — perhaps not surprising in a country where a popular news anchorman recently said homosexuals' hearts should be buried or burned.

The law was signed in June by President Vladimir Putin after sailing through Parliament. It levies heavy fines on anyone convicted of propagandizing "nontraditional sexual relations" among minors.

Putin, in his third term, has been catering to an increasingly conservative constituency, repeating catch-phrases about Russia's traditional values and condemning the West for trends that threaten to destroy them, including homosexuality.

That language has struck a chord in much of Russia, where the rising influence of the Orthodox Church and widespread ignorance about gays has contributed to acceptance of the propaganda law. Polls indicate that the vast majority of Russians don't have a single gay acquaintance and oppose expansion of gay rights.

As a result, a growing cadre of public figures shows no hesitation to demonize gays.

State television anchor Dmitry Kiselyov told audiences that homosexuals should be banned from donating blood or organs, saying that they should be burned or buried instead. Kiselyov later was appointed by Putin to head Russia's largest news agency.

Ivan Okhlobystin, a popular actor and former priest, told his fans that he would gladly "burn them (gays) alive," calling them "a real danger to my children."

Gays face various problems in many other parts of Eastern Europe, including the Balkans, a traditionally conservative region where anti-gay violence has been on the rise. Assaults and harassment have coincided with the strengthening of right-wing groups amid persistent economic problems.

Conservative groups in Croatia, backed by the Roman Catholic Church, forced a referendum in December to define marriage as a union of a man and a woman only. Voters overwhelmingly supported the measure, dealing a blow to the liberal government and triggering criticism from the European Union, which had just admitted Croatia.

In Serbia, a gay pride march in 2010 resulted in daylong violence, with more than 100 people injured. Planned marches in subsequent years were canceled because of extremist threats.

Montenegro held its first pride event last year in the coastal town of Budva. Hundreds of police officers fought right-wing extremists who sought to disrupt the gathering, and participants were eventually evacuated in boats.

___


MIDDLE EAST:

Across most of the Middle East, homosexual relations are taboo, though not all nations choose to prosecute homosexuals and punishments vary.

The pervasiveness of religion in everyday life, along with strict cultural norms, plays a major factor in how Middle Eastern societies view homosexuality. The common Arabic word used to refer to gays is derogatory and its actual meaning translates as "abnormal" or "queer."

Same-sex relations are punishable by death in the Muslim-majority nations of Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen.

In Yemen, more than 30 people suspected of being of gay were killed by unidentified assailants in the past two years, many in southern provinces where al-Qaida is active. Iraq also has experienced a surge of killings of gays.

In Egypt, consensual same-sex relations are not explicitly prohibited, but other laws — those prohibiting "debauchery" or "shameless public acts" — have been used to imprison gay men.

Public acceptance of gays in Israel and Lebanon is higher than the rest of the region, according to a Pew Research Center study released last year. Lebanon and Israel promote gay tourism, and publisher Nabil Mroueh says his company in Beirut, Lebanon's capital, has translated nearly a dozen English books about homosexuality into Arabic.

Among most Palestinians, homosexuality is generally disdained, and gays tend to be secretive about their social lives. In the West Bank, a 1951 Jordanian law banning homosexual acts remains in effect, as does a ban in Gaza passed by British authorities in 1936.

In Israel, by contrast, gays serve openly in the military and in parliament, and many popular artists and entertainers are gay.

Assessing the region as a whole, activists take heart from modest changes — even it's simply the inclusion of gay rights in broader discussions about human rights in the Middle East.

"The situation doesn't look good," said Hossein Alizadeh, a Middle East specialist with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. "But that doesn't mean we stop working."

___

[*Anya*]

The Huffington Post | By Cavan Sieczkowski
Posted: 01/27/2014 9:37 am EST | Updated: 01/27/2014 1:59 pm EST

The mayor of Sochi is under the impression that there are no gay people in his city.

Anatoly Pakhomov spoke with the BBC ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics and discussed how gay people would be treated in the Russian region with the country's "homosexual propaganda" law in place. Pakhomov said gays are welcome at the Games in spite of this, so long as they "respect the laws of the Russian Federation and [don't] impose their habits on others."

He claimed gay people do not have to hide their sexuality in Sochi.

"No, we just say that it is your business, it's your life. But it's not accepted here in the Caucasus where we live. We do not have them in our city," he said. He later admitted that he isn't absolutely certain there are no gay people in Sochi. "I am not sure, but I don't bloody know them."

There are at least two gay clubs in the city, Russia's RT noted. Russian social networks also point to multiple lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities in the area.

Nikolay Alekseyev, a Russian gay rights activist, compared Pakhomov's comments to those of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who once reportedly said, "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals." Alekseyev said, per RT, gay people are present “in any city, any country, any culture and any historical epoch."

Russia's anti-gay law makes it illegal to disseminate information about "nontraditional sexual relations" or "relations not conducive to procreation" to minors, the Associated Press reported. Individuals found in violation of the law could face fines up to 5,000 rubles ($156) or up to 1 million rubles ($31,000) for media organizations. Tourists have already reportedly been detained under this law.

Various celebrities and political figures have in turn backed a boycott of the Sochi Games.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...ef=mostpopular

[Kobi]

Child prostitution has been defined by the UN as "the act of engaging or offering the services of a child to perform sexual acts for money or other consideration with that person or any other person".

By 1990, international awareness of the commercial sexual exploitation and the sale of children had grown to such a level that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

Here is a list of the five countries with the highest rates of child prostitution.

Sri Lanka

The number of crimes against children in Sri Lanka increased by 64% in 2012 , compared to the previous year, a Unicef report said.

"According to Unicef and ILO [International Labour Organisation] there are 40,000 child prostitutes in Sri Lanka and 6.4% of the country's child population gets pregnant," said United National Party MP Rosy Senanayake.

Although girls are sexually exploited both in the sex industry and by sex tourists, many NGOs believe that it is boys who face greater abuse by foreign sex offenders, NGO Ecpact (Ending Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking) said.

In Sri Lanka, the plantation sector has been identified as a notorious area for trafficking of children into the worst forms of child labour, particularly child domestic work and commercial sexual exploitation, according to ILO.

The National Child Protection Authority issued a warning in 2011 of an increase in child sexual exploitation, related to the rapid growth of tourism.



Thailand

Child prostitution in Thailand involved 800,000 children under the age of sixteen in 2004.

According to Ecpat, due to the hidden nature of child sexual abuse reliable figures are hard to compile and cases difficult to document. Available figures estimate that currently some 30,000 to 40,000 children, not including foreign children, are exploited as prostitutes.

Sexual exploitation of children in Thailand, as in many other countries, is tremendously influenced by tourism.

"In Pattaya [ Thailand], if there were fewer foreign people coming in to buy sex, then the problem would be easier to manage," Palissorn Noja, who runs Pattaya's Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Abuse Centre, told the Huffington Post.

"They [pedophiles] have an entire worldwide network of people looking for children through human trafficking. And sex tourism makes it harder to stop."

The photographic documentary, "Underage" by photographer Ohm Phanphiroj shows the life of thousands of underage male prostitutes in Thailand.

"The film aims at exposing the rotten problem about sexual exploitation against minors and mistreatment towards children," the photographer said in a statement.
Child Prostitution Brazil
Underage prostitutes in Brazil

Brazil

Sex trafficking is an appalling truth to many young people in Brazil, where there are half-a-million child sex workers, according to the National Forum for the Prevention of Child Labour.

Children as young as 12 are selling themselves for sex for as little as 80p in Brazil, according to an investigation by Sky News.

The shocking revelation comes as international footballers join a campaign warning fans travelling to Brazil for the World Cup to exploit children.

According to the documentary "Brazil- Children for sale", hundreds of children who live in the slums leave their homes in search of tourists, who are "eager for easy and cheap bodies", to earn money and escape poverty.

Unemployment and poverty is extremely high in Brazil and children are sometimes encouraged by their parents to start prostituting.
Child Prostitution
FBI agent leading away a suspect arrested in the "Operation Cross Country II" in 2008.

United States

According to Crimes Against Children research Centre (CCRC), the numbers of juvenile prostitutes within the United States range from 1,400 to 2.4 million, although most fall between 300,000 and 600,000.

16 children as young as 13 were rescued from the sex trade in a law enforcement operation that targeted suspected pimps who brought the victims to New Jersey for Super Bowl weekend, in February 2014.

"Prostituted children remain the orphans of America's justice system. They are either ignored or, when they do come in contact with law enforcement, harassed, arrested, and incarcerated while the adults who exploit them - the pimp and their customers - largely escape punishment," said Julian Sher, author of the book Somebody's Daughter: The Hidden Story of America's Prostituted Children and the Battle to Save Them.



Canada

Inuit babies and children are being sold by their families and are "prostituted out by a parent, family member or domestic partner", according to a recent report by Canadian Department of Justice.

The sexual exploitation of children is a deeply–rooted reality in too many Canadian homes, families and communities, according to a 2011 report by a Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights.

The committee, which started the investigation in 2009, heard that in one year there were almost 9,000 reported sexual assaults against children
(many of whom belong to aboriginal communities) in Canada. The overwhelming majority of sexual abuse goes unreported.

Social service organisations have estimated the number of trafficked Canadians to be as high as 16,000 a year, but the number of children trafficked within Canada from place to place remains uncertain due to the clandestine nature of the activity, Unicef Canada said in a statement in 2009.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/top-five-co...tution-1435448

[LeftWriteFemme]

[MsTinkerbelly]

Lord have mercy

A Maylasian Airlines flight has crashed near the Russian border, presumably killing all 290+ people on board.

They are being careful to not say (at least on CNN) that it was a rocket, or a malfunction, but several planes have gone down in that area in the last few weeks via rocket fire.

[MsTinkerbelly]

The anti-gay bill signed into law earlier this year was ruled illegal and was invalidated yesterday.

I'm on my ipad and have trouble copying and posting, so if someone wants to find it, go to LBGTQ nation for the story.

[*Anya*]

By James Gallagher

Health editor, BBC News website

9/5/14

William Pooley, 29, has been treated in a special isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

Mr Pooley was given the experimental drug ZMapp and has praised the "world class" care at the hospital.

About half of the 3,000 people infected in the outbreak, which started in Guinea, have died.

The pace of the outbreak has been accelerating with more than 40% of cases in the past three weeks.

Mr Pooley was working as a volunteer nurse in one of the worst affected countries, Sierra Leone, when he contracted the virus.

He is unsure when he became infected, but started feeling sick and needed a blood test.

He recalled the moment his fears were confirmed: "I was woken early that evening by one of the World Health Organization doctors and immediately I knew it was bad news.

"I was worried that I was going to die, I was worried about my family and I was scared."

'Very lucky'

Mr Pooley has been treated at a specialist isolation unit at London's Royal Free Hospital
He was flown back to the UK by the RAF on Sunday 24 August.

Mr Pooley was in the earlier stages of the disease. He had a high temperature but was not bleeding.

He said: "I was very lucky in several ways; firstly in the standard of care I received, which is a world apart from what people are receiving in West Africa at the moment.

"And my symptoms never progressed to the worst stage of the disease, I've seen people dying horrible deaths, I had some unpleasant symptoms, but nothing compared to the worst of the disease."

He was treated with the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp, a 12-hour infusion of antibodies, that has been given to only six other patients.

It is not clear if the infusion helped, but levels of the virus in his bloodstream did fall significantly after the treatment.

The global response to the disease has been "lethally inadequate", according to the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Estimates suggest up to 20,000 people will be infected during this outbreak.

Overall, 51% of those infected have died - ranging from 41% in Sierra Leone to 66% in Guinea.

Mr Pooley praised the efforts of other people working on the ground.

"It's just heroic what they're doing, they know what might be facing them," he said.

"In the face of quite likely a horrible death, they're continuing to work all day, every day helping sick people, it's amazing."

He said it had felt "natural" to go and help in West Africa, that he had no regrets and was "more committed than ever to nursing".

Mr Pooley is heading back to Eyke in Suffolk with his family this afternoon.

"They incinerated my passport, so my mum will be pleased to know I can't go anywhere," he added.