Latin America | Colombia | Activism

Revered Social Leader and Activist Killed in Colombia

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Social leader Tatiana Paola Posso Espitia, 35, was shot twice in the head Wednesday morning in front of her house in El Copey located in the Department of Cesar when two men on motorcycles fired at the activist and fled the scene. The assassination occurred just as Espitia’s taxi driver, Wilson Ortega Palomino, arrived at her home to take the social leader to work, according to local media reports. The bad timing resulted in Ortega also being shot four times by the hitmen. He is in critical condition at a nearby hospital. The National Network for Democracy and Peace in Colombia
South Asia | Singapore | Law

First woman detained for radicalism in singapore released with restrictions

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Syaikhah Izzah Zahrah Al Ansari, the first woman detained for radicalism under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in Singapore, has been released. In a press release on Tuesday (Jun 25), the Ministry of Home Affairs said Izzah, now 24, was released from detention with restrictions when her Order of Detention (OD) expired in June. She was among four Singaporean ISA detainees who had "shown good progress in their rehabilitation", said MHA, and had been "assessed to no longer pose a security threat that require preventive detention". Izzah, a former infant-care assistant with the PAP Commun
Latin America | Brazil | Scandal

Survey Indicates 97 Percent of Women Were Harassed in Public and Private Transport

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Almost all (97 percent) of Brazilian women over age eighteen who were surveyed, said they had experiences incidents of sexual harassment on public transport, in Apps transport or in taxis, according to research conducted by the Instituto Patrícia Galvão and Instituto Locomotiva, supported by Uber. "It's a compelling number. This is everyday life for women, the very expression of what is happening," said Jacira Melo, executive director of the Patrícia Galvão Institute. In February of this year, the institutes interviewed 1,081 women who used public or private transportation in the thr
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

The Saudi government is hunting down women who flee the country by tracking the IMEI number on their cellphones

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Women who flee Saudi Arabia expect to be chased. They expect their friends to be interviewed, their social media to be scoured, their passports to be frozen. They mostly do not expect Saudi government agents to hunt down the old box for their iPhone. But according to multiple sources who spoke with INSIDER, this is what has been happening in Saudi Arabia's quest to track down the growing number of women who flee the country every year. Cellphone packaging can provide information that could — with the help of spy-grade tracking equipment — trace a Saudi runaway to within a few feet of her
South Asia | Nepal | Culture

Why It’s So Hard To Stop Women From Sleeping In A Menstrual Shed

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Every year in Nepal, women die while sleeping in a shed outside their home because they are on their period. The cause of death is often smoke inhalation from lighting a fire to stay warm. The practice, called chaupadi, is linked to Hindu beliefs around religious purity and the idea that menstruation is spiritually polluting. In much of the country, this means that a woman who is menstruating will avoid temples, prayer rooms and kitchens — places important to keep pure in the Hindu religion. In parts of the remote west, an extreme version means nights sleeping outside in a hut or she
South Asia | Afghanistan | Crimes

Mena Mangal: Journalist and women’s rights campaigner shot dead in broad daylight in Kabul

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An Afghan journalist and political advisor, who was vocal about women’s rights in the country, has been gunned down in broad daylight, just days after saying she believed her life was in danger. Mena Mangal was shot dead on Saturday morning in a public place while she was on her way to work in the capital city of Kabul. Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said one or possibly more assailants had escaped the scene but no one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack and police say it is not yet clear whether the murder was a terror attack or an attack from
Middle East | Qatar | Politics

Taliban meets with women’s rights activists, others after talks with Afghan officials collapse

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The sudden cancellation of eagerly awaited talks between Taliban officials and Afghan leaders, planned to begin last Friday in Qatar, seemed a stunning reversal in slow-going efforts to bring a peaceful negotiated end to the 17-year Afghan war. As it turned out, the moment did not go entirely to waste. On Saturday, about 20 Afghan emigres from Europe and the United States, including three women, privately met Taliban representatives in Doha, the Qatari capital. They said they spoke for more than six hours with the group’s chief negotiator, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, and a dozen other
North America | United States | Corruption

FDA: Government Recommends Untested, Unlicensed Vaccines for Pregnant Women

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In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, the FDA has admitted, for the first time, that government agencies, including the CDC, are recommending vaccines for pregnant women that have neither been licensed for pregnant mothers by FDA nor tested for safety in clinical trials. The lawsuit, filed by Children’s Health Defense (CHD) attorney, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on behalf of Informed Consent Action Network(ICAN), a vaccine safety advocacy group, sought all clinical trial data used by FDA to approve influenza vaccines for pregnant women. The FDA’s terse reply: “We
Latin America | Honduras | Crimes

Outrageous: Berta Cáceres, Honduran human rights and environment activist, murdered

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Berta Cáceres, the Honduran indigenous and environmental rights campaigner, has been murdered, barely a week after she was threatened for opposing a hydroelectric project. Her death prompted international outrage at the murderous treatment of campaigners in Honduras, as well as a flood of tributes to a prominent and courageous defender of the natural world. The co-founder of the Council of Indigenous Peoples of Honduras (Copinh) was shot dead by gunmen who entered her home in La Esperanza at around 1am on Thursday. Some reports say there were two killers; others suggest 11. They escaped
Latin America | Colombia | Crimes

Colombia finally cracks down on a horrific wave of acid attacks against women

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Colombia is finally taking action against what may be one of the most intense waves of horrific acid attacks on women anywhere in the world. President Juan Manuel Santos this week closed a legal loophole that often allowed attackers to get away scot-free. Official figures acknowledge 628 victims, but women’s rights activists believe the true toll may be far higher. Under the new law, signed Monday, anyone using any kind of “chemical agent” to physically harm another person will receive a minimum sentence of 12 years behind bars. If the victim is permanently disfigured, the
Europe | U.K. | Crimes

Police say UK journalist Jacky Sutton’s death in Istanbul airport was suspicious

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The unexplained death of British journalist Jacky Sutton in an Istanbul airport is now being treated as suspicious after police discovered thousands of euros in her bag, adding fresh doubt to reports suggesting she killed herself due to lack of funds. In the early hours of Sunday morning, Russian tourists found Sutton, 50, hanged in a toilet cubicle at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport after missing her connecting flight to Erbil, Iraq. Sutton was the acting Iraq director for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), a London-based non-profit media organization. Her death comes five
North America | United States | Medicine

Newborn infants experience psychiatric drug withdrawal

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Babies born to women with psychotic disorders often have the deck stacked against them. Their mothers tend to receive less prenatal care; have poorer nutrition; use more tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs; are unlikely to be married; and often have limited social support. New labeling recently promulgated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that these babies may also be susceptible to withdrawal symptoms from their mothers' antipsychotic medications, but some practitioners fear the results of those warnings will be worse than the symptoms of withdrawal. Last month the FDA poste
Latin America | Mexico | Crimes

Politician Says Homeless People Should Be Put Down By Lethal Injection

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A Mexican councillor has provoked outrage after that homeless people should be put down like animals to keep the number of them on the streets down. Olga Gutierrez Machorro believes that beggars should be culled with lethal injection, believing it to be in their best interests. She said: “Yes they’re a little crazy, but they’re harmless. “Which is why I think to myself wouldn’t it be kinder to just give them a lethal injection?” Unbelievably, Machorro, who is a member of the local government in Tecamachalco, Mexico, is also the councillor responsible for the Vulnerable Groups C
North America | United States | Corruption

Mostly Women…Shame: School drug counselors charged with carrying out $46-million Medi-Cal fraud scheme

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In middle schools and high schools across Los Angeles County, Atlantic Recovery Services offered some hope: a free, government-funded treatment program for children coping with drug and alcohol addiction. But prosecutors alleged this week that the Long Beach-based program was set up to exploit children and defraud taxpayers, with supervisors telling staffers to forge student signatures, falsify treatment records, and enroll students who may have merely dabbled in drugs, even once. Eight employees of the now-defunct drug treatment company have been charged in a decade-long scheme that ne