Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/04/11/to-do-list-exclusive-clip/
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Thursday, April 11, 2013
'To-Do List' Exclusive Clip Explains Why Men Should Drink Pineapple Juice
Pretty much everyone who's ever been to high school has heard the claim that pineapple juices allegedly make a, uh, certain male quality taste better, but few have taken matters into their own hands as efficiently as Aubrey Plaza in her new movie "The To-Do List." In an exclusive MTV Sneak Peek Week clip, her [...]
Hands-on with Freefly's shockingly awesome $15,000 Movi camera gimbal
One of the hottest gadgets at NAB isn't quite what you'd expect. Freefly, the company behind a series of professional-grade cinema hexacopters, is demoing its new Movi three-axis stabilized camera gimbal. We heard some rumblings about such a device last week, but the $15,000 price tag is quite a turnoff -- until you see it in action. We dropped by the company's booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center to check it out with an attached Canon EOS-1D C. Movi weighs in at just 3.5 pounds, jumping to 10 pounds once you mount the Canon camera and lens.
It's a very robust system, despite the weight and footprint, letting you pull off shots that otherwise may require hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment, and a substantial crew. In other words, you can capture incredibly compelling motion scenes with just a single camera operator. Don't take our word for it, though -- join us past the break to see Movi in action, along with a glowing testimonial from director Vincent Laforet, who Freefly tapped to shoot the gimbal's very first sample reel.
Source: Vincent Laforet
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/DqhJVrJwdYU/
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Primitive fish with butt fins shows evolution's quirks
Robert Sansom
The Euphanerops sported bizarre fins below its anus, revealing some of the odd turns evolution took on the path to vertebrate evolution.
By Tia Ghose, LiveScience
A 370-milion-year-old, primitive fish sported a weird pair of fins just below its anus, new research shows.
The strange appendages, detailed Tuesday in the journal Biology Letters, were found on an ancient jawless fish called Euphanerops longaevus that lived around the time that jawless fishes like lampreys split off from jawed vertebrates, which include everything from sharks to humans.
"What's weird about this organism is that it had a paired anal fin. It's unique ? no other known fossil or modern fish is known to have that disposition," said study co-author Robert Sansom, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester in the U.K.
The findings suggest that early in primitive vertebrates' history, evolution experimented with a number of wacky body plans, only some of which survived, Sansom told LiveScience. [Image Gallery: The Freakiest Looking Fish]
Early fish
The Euphanerops fish were 3.9 inches long and looked somewhat like modern-day eels. The specimens were unearthed in a fossil bed in Miguasha, Quebec, decades ago, and were stored in collections in the National History Museum in London and the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Miguasha, in Quebec.
Previously, researchers weren't sure exactly what to make of the creatures' weird fins. Some thought the anal appendages might actually have been displaced from another part of the animal's body in the fossilization process.
Early body plan
The researchers weren't convinced of the displacement explanation. By comparing the 3-D surfaces of the fossil under a microscope, the team concluded that the fin pair was actually located below the anus on the living creature. Though it's not clear exactly how the fins were used, the fins most likely helped the fish get around, Sansom said.
The fossil dates to a critical period of vertebrate evolution: Jawed and jawless vertebrates diverged roughly around this time. Eventually jawed fish developed paired fins (but not anal fins) that evolved to become arms and legs. In fact, the same genes code for shark fins and human limbs.
The discovery changes the view of how fishes were evolving at this time, Sansom said.
"Rather than gradual acquisition of complex characteristics, maybe there was a bit more experimentation and odd acquisitions," he said.
Specialized trait?
The finding of paired anal fins is "beautifully illustrated," said Michael Coates, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the study.
"It might just be the first vestige, it might be some kind of precursor to generating paired fins" that are commonly seen throughout jawed vertebrates, Coates told LiveScience.
But it's also possible they were a specialized trait that only Euphanerops possessed, not reflective of the evolutionary history of jawed vertebrates as a whole, Coates said.
Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter @tiaghose.?Follow?LiveScience@livescience,Facebook?&Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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How Seattle Cancer Care Alliance implemented Washington's Death with Dignity Act
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Public release date: 10-Apr-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Dean Forbes
dforbes@fhcrc.org
206-667-2896
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Study details SCCA's plan to honor both patients' wishes and voters' mandate
SEATTLE By the end of 2011, most of the 255 Washington residents who received a prescription for lethal medication to end their lives under the state's Death with Dignity Act had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Of those, 40 were patients at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, part of the Pacific Northwest's only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Because several states are considering similar Death with Dignity laws, and because such legislation disproportionately affects cancer patients and their families, SCCA conducted a study to describe the institution's implementation of the Washington state law and its experience with patients who chose to participate. The study's findings are published in the April 11, 2013 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
The study found that overall, SCCA's Death with Dignity program was rarely used, but in those cases where it was, the program was well-accepted by patients and physicians. "Qualitatively, patients and families were grateful to receive the lethal prescription whether or not it was used," the authors wrote.
The study found the most common reasons for participating included loss of autonomy, an inability to engage in enjoyable activities and loss of dignity.
"People who pursue Death with Dignity tend to be individuals who want to be independent and want to have control over the conditions and timing of their final moments of life," said Elizabeth Trice Loggers, M.D., Ph.D., corresponding author and medical director of SCCA's Supportive and Palliative Care Service.
Washington was the second state, after Oregon, to enact a Death with Dignity law. It was passed in November 2008 after a voter-approved referendum and enacted in March 2009. Under Washington law, competent adults residing in the state with a life expectancy of six months or less due to a diagnosed medical condition may request and self-administer lethal medications prescribed by a physician. Prescribing physicians do not assist patients to ingest the medicine.
SCCA patient participants
A total of 114 patients inquired about the institution's Death with Dignity program between March 5, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2011. Of these, 44 did not pursue the program; 30 others initiated the process but either elected not to continue or died before completing the steps necessary to obtain a prescription for lethal medicine. Forty patients received a prescription and 24 died after ingesting the medication, which was secobarbital, a barbiturate. The average time from ingestion to death was 35 minutes. The remaining 16 patients did not use the drug and eventually died of their disease. For this study, SCCA patients were characterized as participants if they completed the steps required for a physician to prescribe lethal medication. The participants were mostly Caucasian men with more than a high school education, married and ranged in age from 42 to 91.
Policy debate and decision
Loggers said that while SCCA's goals are to cure cancer and save lives, providers also must be prepared to help patients with terminal disease by offering palliative care and other end-of-life services.
SCCA's Death with Dignity program was adapted from existing programs in Oregon. Significant internal debate took place before a policy was written and approved. Linda Ganzini, M.D., M.P.H., professor of psychiatry and medicine at Oregon Health & Science University and the country's foremost expert on death with dignity programs, was brought in to consult.
Among the decisions made to address potentially controversial aspects:
- SCCA does not accept new patients solely for the purpose to access the Death with Dignity program.
- Information is not posted in public spaces of the clinic, effectively requiring patients to initiate requests with their doctor.
- Participants are required to sign an agreement not to take the lethal prescription in a public area or manner. This is more restrictive than the Death with Dignity state law, which only recommends this.
- No physicians or staff members are compelled to participate. A confidential survey asked about 200 SCCA physicians their willingness to act as prescribing or consulting clinicians as defined in the law. Eighty-one responded, with 50 physicians willing to participate in either role. Thirty-one physicians were unwilling or undecided.
According to Loggers, the decision to offer a Death with Dignity program to patients was a small part of offering a broad spectrum of high quality cancer care.
"Throughout history, cancer has been one of the paradigmatic diseases where we must prospectively deal with the knowledge of death," she said. "You can't ignore death if you are going to be a good medical oncologist or an organization that cares well for cancer patients and their families," said Loggers, who is a medical oncologist and board-certified in hospice and palliative medicine. She is also an assistant member of the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and an assistant investigator at Group Health Research Institute.
"In a pluralistic society where 58 percent of Washington voters affirmed that terminally ill individuals should have Death with Dignity as a legitimate choice at end of life, we felt compelled to honor that for patients and families," she continued. "It's also important to note that the vast majority of families, including those who also select Death with Dignity, opt for palliative and hospice care at end of life. The existence of Death with Dignity hasn't changed that."
How Death with Dignity program is implemented
Following referral to the Death with Dignity program, each patient is assigned a social worker to serve as an advocate who assists the patient, family, physicians and other health care providers through the multi-step process, which includes:
- describing the process to the patient and family (including offering alternatives such as palliative care and hospice)
- conducting a preliminary medical chart review to confirm a diagnosis of terminal disease
- identifying a physician who will write the prescription
- verifying legal residency
- completing a psychosocial assessment
- monitoring compliance with required documentation
Upon completion of these steps, formal documents are given to the patient, who is required to sign them. The patient and family then meet with both the prescribing and consulting physicians, who review the diagnosis, prognosis and medication risks. Alternatives to lethal medication are again discussed. After the mandatory 15-day waiting period, if all legal requirements are met, a written prescription is sent to the SCCA pharmacy. A pharmacist then meets with the patient and family to educate them about using the prescribed medication.
Assessing the program
The authors reported no unexpected complications except for a patient who died a day after taking the lethal medication, which caused caregiver and clinician distress. Similar cases have been reported by other Washington and Oregon institutions.
"Anecdotally, families describe the death as peaceful (even when death has taken longer than the average of approximately 35 minutes)," the authors wrote. "We have not received complaints from family members or caregivers regarding our process or the manner of death of any patients."
None of the patients who chose to obtain a prescription were found to have current or historical depression or decision-making incapacity. None were deemed to need a mental health evaluation, which the law requires if physicians believe the patient may be suffering from a psychiatric or psychological disorder or depression causing impaired judgment.
###
The authors attribute the acceptance of the Death with Dignity program to the professionalism of the patient advocates, the care provided by clinicians when interacting with patients and families, the overall low profile of the program, and the willingness by SCCA leadership to allow significant upfront debate. Some physicians who initially were strongly opposed to the policy eventually joined the program, which further supported its acceptance, according to the authors.
Editor's note: Please contact the NEJM Media Center at 781-434-7847 or mediasupport@nejm.org to obtain an embargoed copy of the paper, "Implementing a Death with Dignity Program at a Comprehensive Cancer Center."
About Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) is a cancer treatment center that unites doctors from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, UW Medicine and Seattle Children's. Our goal, every day, is to turn cancer patients into cancer survivors. Our purpose is to lead the world in the prevention and treatment of cancer. SCCA has three clinical care sites: an outpatient clinic on the Hutchinson Center campus, a pediatric inpatient unit at Seattle Children's, and an adult inpatient unit at UW Medical Center. For more information about SCCA, visit http://www.seattlecca.org.
Media Contact:
Dean Forbes
206-667-2896
dforbes@fhcrc.org
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 10-Apr-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Dean Forbes
dforbes@fhcrc.org
206-667-2896
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Study details SCCA's plan to honor both patients' wishes and voters' mandate
SEATTLE By the end of 2011, most of the 255 Washington residents who received a prescription for lethal medication to end their lives under the state's Death with Dignity Act had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Of those, 40 were patients at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, part of the Pacific Northwest's only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Because several states are considering similar Death with Dignity laws, and because such legislation disproportionately affects cancer patients and their families, SCCA conducted a study to describe the institution's implementation of the Washington state law and its experience with patients who chose to participate. The study's findings are published in the April 11, 2013 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
The study found that overall, SCCA's Death with Dignity program was rarely used, but in those cases where it was, the program was well-accepted by patients and physicians. "Qualitatively, patients and families were grateful to receive the lethal prescription whether or not it was used," the authors wrote.
The study found the most common reasons for participating included loss of autonomy, an inability to engage in enjoyable activities and loss of dignity.
"People who pursue Death with Dignity tend to be individuals who want to be independent and want to have control over the conditions and timing of their final moments of life," said Elizabeth Trice Loggers, M.D., Ph.D., corresponding author and medical director of SCCA's Supportive and Palliative Care Service.
Washington was the second state, after Oregon, to enact a Death with Dignity law. It was passed in November 2008 after a voter-approved referendum and enacted in March 2009. Under Washington law, competent adults residing in the state with a life expectancy of six months or less due to a diagnosed medical condition may request and self-administer lethal medications prescribed by a physician. Prescribing physicians do not assist patients to ingest the medicine.
SCCA patient participants
A total of 114 patients inquired about the institution's Death with Dignity program between March 5, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2011. Of these, 44 did not pursue the program; 30 others initiated the process but either elected not to continue or died before completing the steps necessary to obtain a prescription for lethal medicine. Forty patients received a prescription and 24 died after ingesting the medication, which was secobarbital, a barbiturate. The average time from ingestion to death was 35 minutes. The remaining 16 patients did not use the drug and eventually died of their disease. For this study, SCCA patients were characterized as participants if they completed the steps required for a physician to prescribe lethal medication. The participants were mostly Caucasian men with more than a high school education, married and ranged in age from 42 to 91.
Policy debate and decision
Loggers said that while SCCA's goals are to cure cancer and save lives, providers also must be prepared to help patients with terminal disease by offering palliative care and other end-of-life services.
SCCA's Death with Dignity program was adapted from existing programs in Oregon. Significant internal debate took place before a policy was written and approved. Linda Ganzini, M.D., M.P.H., professor of psychiatry and medicine at Oregon Health & Science University and the country's foremost expert on death with dignity programs, was brought in to consult.
Among the decisions made to address potentially controversial aspects:
- SCCA does not accept new patients solely for the purpose to access the Death with Dignity program.
- Information is not posted in public spaces of the clinic, effectively requiring patients to initiate requests with their doctor.
- Participants are required to sign an agreement not to take the lethal prescription in a public area or manner. This is more restrictive than the Death with Dignity state law, which only recommends this.
- No physicians or staff members are compelled to participate. A confidential survey asked about 200 SCCA physicians their willingness to act as prescribing or consulting clinicians as defined in the law. Eighty-one responded, with 50 physicians willing to participate in either role. Thirty-one physicians were unwilling or undecided.
According to Loggers, the decision to offer a Death with Dignity program to patients was a small part of offering a broad spectrum of high quality cancer care.
"Throughout history, cancer has been one of the paradigmatic diseases where we must prospectively deal with the knowledge of death," she said. "You can't ignore death if you are going to be a good medical oncologist or an organization that cares well for cancer patients and their families," said Loggers, who is a medical oncologist and board-certified in hospice and palliative medicine. She is also an assistant member of the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and an assistant investigator at Group Health Research Institute.
"In a pluralistic society where 58 percent of Washington voters affirmed that terminally ill individuals should have Death with Dignity as a legitimate choice at end of life, we felt compelled to honor that for patients and families," she continued. "It's also important to note that the vast majority of families, including those who also select Death with Dignity, opt for palliative and hospice care at end of life. The existence of Death with Dignity hasn't changed that."
How Death with Dignity program is implemented
Following referral to the Death with Dignity program, each patient is assigned a social worker to serve as an advocate who assists the patient, family, physicians and other health care providers through the multi-step process, which includes:
- describing the process to the patient and family (including offering alternatives such as palliative care and hospice)
- conducting a preliminary medical chart review to confirm a diagnosis of terminal disease
- identifying a physician who will write the prescription
- verifying legal residency
- completing a psychosocial assessment
- monitoring compliance with required documentation
Upon completion of these steps, formal documents are given to the patient, who is required to sign them. The patient and family then meet with both the prescribing and consulting physicians, who review the diagnosis, prognosis and medication risks. Alternatives to lethal medication are again discussed. After the mandatory 15-day waiting period, if all legal requirements are met, a written prescription is sent to the SCCA pharmacy. A pharmacist then meets with the patient and family to educate them about using the prescribed medication.
Assessing the program
The authors reported no unexpected complications except for a patient who died a day after taking the lethal medication, which caused caregiver and clinician distress. Similar cases have been reported by other Washington and Oregon institutions.
"Anecdotally, families describe the death as peaceful (even when death has taken longer than the average of approximately 35 minutes)," the authors wrote. "We have not received complaints from family members or caregivers regarding our process or the manner of death of any patients."
None of the patients who chose to obtain a prescription were found to have current or historical depression or decision-making incapacity. None were deemed to need a mental health evaluation, which the law requires if physicians believe the patient may be suffering from a psychiatric or psychological disorder or depression causing impaired judgment.
###
The authors attribute the acceptance of the Death with Dignity program to the professionalism of the patient advocates, the care provided by clinicians when interacting with patients and families, the overall low profile of the program, and the willingness by SCCA leadership to allow significant upfront debate. Some physicians who initially were strongly opposed to the policy eventually joined the program, which further supported its acceptance, according to the authors.
Editor's note: Please contact the NEJM Media Center at 781-434-7847 or mediasupport@nejm.org to obtain an embargoed copy of the paper, "Implementing a Death with Dignity Program at a Comprehensive Cancer Center."
About Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) is a cancer treatment center that unites doctors from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, UW Medicine and Seattle Children's. Our goal, every day, is to turn cancer patients into cancer survivors. Our purpose is to lead the world in the prevention and treatment of cancer. SCCA has three clinical care sites: an outpatient clinic on the Hutchinson Center campus, a pediatric inpatient unit at Seattle Children's, and an adult inpatient unit at UW Medical Center. For more information about SCCA, visit http://www.seattlecca.org.
Media Contact:
Dean Forbes
206-667-2896
dforbes@fhcrc.org
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/fhcr-hsc040513.php
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World stocks up as Wall Street climbs
BANGKOK (AP) ? World stock markets powered higher Thursday after a U.S. communications company posted a surprise jump in earnings that led to big gains in technology stocks and new highs on Wall Street.
Markets took additional encouragement from the release of minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's March meeting, which showed a majority of policymakers in favor of continuing the central bank's bond purchases to help boost the U.S. economy at least through the middle of the year.
Although some policymakers want to slow and eventually end the purchases before the end of 2013, some investors took that as a sign of confidence in the U.S. economy.
European stocks rose in early trading. Britain's FTSE 100 advanced 0.1 percent to 6,395.92. Germany's DAX rose 0.5 percent to 7,850.05. France's CAC-40 added 0.5 percent to 3,762.06.
Wall Street appeared set for yet more gains following a rally Wednesday that drove the Standard & Poor's 500 and Dow Jones industrial average to record highs. The records were set after network communications company Adtran reported earnings that were double what was expected. Dow futures rose 0.2 percent to 14,764 while S&P 500 futures rose 0.1 percent to 1,584.90.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped nearly 2 percent to close at 13,549.16, riding a wave of enthusiasm for the Bank of Japan's aggressive new approach to stimulating the world's third-largest economy out of a prolonged slump.
Australia's S&P/ASX advanced 0.8 percent to 5,007.10. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.3 percent to 22,101.27.
South Korea's Kospi added 0.7 percent to 1,949.80, even though the Bank of Korea disappointed some analysts by keeping its key interest rate at 2.75 percent. Some were expecting the central bank would lower the rate to spark borrowing and help the economy.
Investors are also hoping that progress will be made in Washington toward a 2014 federal budget. President Barack Obama proposed a $3.8 trillion plan on Wednesday. Without a budget agreement, a huge array of government spending cuts ? known as sequestration ? will remain in place. Some economists believe the cuts are hurting growth and employment.
"That last jobs report shows potentially the sequestration is having an effect on employment, and that will have a big knock-on effect on the U.S. recovery," said Andrew Sullivan of Kim Eng Securities in Hong Kong. "Now that you've had a bad jobs report, people won't want to see another one."
Japanese high-tech shares were among the strong gainers in Asia. Hitachi Ltd. jumped 7.4 percent and Sharp Corp. surged 7.9 percent. Travel-related shares in China began to recover from recent losses as fears eased after a string of bird flu cases were discovered in eastern China. Hong Kong-listed Air China rose 2.4 percent. China Eastern Airline rose 3.1 percent.
Benchmark oil for May delivery was down 23 cents to $94.41 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 31 cents to $94.33 per barrel on the Nymex on Wednesday.
In currency markets, the euro rose to $1.3082 from $1.3058 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar fell to 99.60 yen from 99.76 yen.
___
Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/world-stocks-wall-street-climbs-094020890--finance.html
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Afghan women in Kabul prison over 'moral' crimes
KABUL (AP) ? Lost and alone in a strange city Mariam called the only person she knew, her husband's cousin. She worried he wouldn't help her because she had left her home in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province, fleeting to the capital Kabul to escape his relentless and increasingly vicious beatings. But he promised to help. Too busy to come himself he sent a friend who took her to "some house", held a gun to her head and raped her.
Finished with her he settled in front of a TV set, the gun on a table by his side. Choosing her moment, Mariam picked up the gun shot her assailant in the head and turned the gun on herself.
"Three days later I woke up in the hospital," she said, slowly, shyly removing a scarf from her head to reveal a partially shaved head and a long jagged scar that ran almost the length of her head where the bullet grazed her scalp.
From the hospital Mariam was sent to a police station and from there to Badam Bagh, Afghanistan's central women's prison where she told her story to The Associated Press. For the past three months Mariam has been waiting to find out why she is in jail, the charges and when she can leave.
"I haven't gone to court. I am just waiting."
Hugging a ratty brown sweater to protect her from the damp cold of the prison, Mariam is one of 202 women living in the six- year- old jail. The majority of the women packed are serving sentences of up to seven years for leaving their husbands, refusing to accept a marriage arranged by their parents, or choosing to leave their parent's home with a man of their choice __ all so-called "moral" crimes, says the prison's director general Zaref Jan Naebi.
Some of the women were jailed while pregnant, others with their small children. Naebi says there are 62 children living with their imprisoned mothers, sharing the same grey steel bunk-beds, napping in the afternoon hidden behind a sheet draped from an upper bunk, oblivious to the chatter and the crackling noises from the small fussy television sets shoved off to one side of the rooms.
The Taliban were thrown out 12 years ago ending five years of rule and regressive laws that enforced a tribal tradition and culture more than religious compulsions denying girls schools, ordering women to stay indoors unless accompanied by a male, and in some of the more severe cases even blackening the first story windows so prying eyes could not see women within. Women were forced to wear the all- encompassing burqa or suffer a public beating.
In the first years after the Taliban's December 2001 removal strides seemed to be made for women, schools opened, women came out of their house, many still in the burqas but appearing on television and getting elected to Parliament.
But women's activists in Kabul say within a few years of the Taliban's ouster the ball was dropped, interest waned and even President Hamid Karzai began making statements that harkened back to the Taliban rule saying women really should be accompanied by a man while outside their home. A new law was enacted called the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW), but its implementation is erratic and rare, says the United Nations Assistance Mission on Afghanistan, whose human rights arm monitors such things.
An UNAMA report issued in December last year says it is difficult to even get information about violence against women from the authorities partially because they don't want to look bad if it showed that little was being done and little, if any, official documentation on violence against women exists.
While it might not be against the law to run away or escape a forced marriage, the courts routinely convict women fleeing abusive homes with "the intent to commit zina (or adultery)" which are most often simply referred to as "moral crimes," says the report.
"Perceptions toward women are still the same in most places, tribal laws are the only laws followed and in most places nothing has changed in the basics of women's lives. There are policies and papers and even laws but nothing has changed," said Zubaida Akbar whose volunteer Haider organization fights for women's rights and sends lawyers and aid workers to the women's prison to defend the inmates in court.
In the overwhelmingly male dominated legal system, Akbar said even when an inmate gets in front of the judge, "he says 'it is her husband, she should go back and make it work. It is her fault and not her place to leave him __ not in our society.'"
Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative society, where men dominate and tribal jirgas still hand out rulings that offer girls and women to settle debts and disputes.
Surrounded by a high fence topped with razor wire, there is one small patch of open space where children being kept with their mothers in Badam Bagh prison play. Nearby women hang out their laundry. The two story building is only six years old but already it is grimy and neglected looking. On balconies obscured by mesh and steel bars women sit and smoke.
Naebi said inmates attend a variety of classes during the week, ranging from basic literacy, to crafts and sewing, with the intention of giving the women a skill once they leave the prison.
Inside the stark building, six people often share a small room that is their cell. Three sets of bunk-beds line the walls. In some of the beds infants tucked under grimy blankets sleep while their mothers tell their story.
Nuria, dressed in maroon colored clothes from head to toe, quieted her infant boy as she told of going to court to demand a divorce from a husband she was forced by her parents to marry. Defiant even in prison, Nuria said "I wanted to get a divorce but he wouldn't let me go. I never wanted to marry him. I loved someone else but my father made me. He threatened to kill me if I didn't."
Nuria had pleaded with her father before her marriage, begging to marry another.
"When I went to court for the divorce, instead of giving me a divorce, they charged me with running away," she said. The man she wanted to marry was also charged and is now serving time in Afghanistan's notorious Pul-e-Charkhi prison, one of the country's largest prisons, overcrowded and with a reputation over the last several decades of maltreatment.
At the time she went to court Nuria didn't know she was pregnant. She gave birth to her son in jail. Although the baby is her husband, who has offered to have the courts set her free if she returns home, Nuria said she has refused.
"He wants me to come home now because I have his son but I said 'no. I will wait until my sentence is up,'" in eight months, she said.
Twenty seven year old Adia left her husband, a drug addict, seeking shelter with her parents. They wanted her to return to her husband, who followed her demanding she return.
"Instead I escaped with another man but it wasn't a romance. I was desperate to get away and he said he would help me but he didn't he just left me. I went to the court. I was angry. I wanted him charged and my husband charged but instead they charged me and sentenced me to six years. I went back to court to appeal the conviction and this time I was sentenced to seven and a half years."
Seven months pregnant, Adia will have her baby in jail. Fauzia isn't sure of her age. She looks to be early 60s. She stares out of the prison bars. Already seven years in jail, Fauzia will serve a 17 year sentence for killing her husband and her daughter in law. Expressionless she tells her story, rolls up her sleeve to display a mangled elbow where her husband had smashed her with a stick. She was his fourth wife.
"I was in one room. I came into the next room and they were there having sexual relations. I found a big knife and killed them both."
Zubeida, the women's activist, said despite what she calls a veneer of change, little is different for most Afghan women.
"We have the appearance of everything, but when you dig in deep down below the surface nothing fundamentally has changed. It has been tough. It has been really tough," she said.
______
Kathy Gannon is AP Special Regional Correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan and can be reached at www.twitter.com/kathygannon
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/afghan-women-kabul-prison-over-moral-crimes-131735797.html
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Thunder star Durant pays visit to Giants game
By JANIE McCAULEY
AP Baseball Writer
Associated Press Sports
updated 3:27 p.m. ET April 10, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant spent his basketball off day at the San Francisco Giants' ballpark on a spectacular Bay Area afternoon, signing autographs and meeting players Wednesday.
"It's a great day," Durant said in the dugout. "I'm looking forward to it."
He insists he can learn from watching the best in another sport - and Durant followed the Giants' run to the World Series title last fall, the second for the franchise in three years.
San Francisco became the first team in major league history to rally back from a 2-0 deficit in a best-of-five playoff series by winning three straight road games, which the Giants did in Cincinnati.
"Just watching the game, I saw these guys win the World Series and the road they took," Durant said. "You can kind of take some things to put into our game, how they fought from games down, how they came together as a team. They've been playing at a championship level for a while now. It's good to see."
Durant, in town to face the playoff-bound Golden State Warriors on Thursday night, was especially eager to watch reigning NL MVP and batting champion Buster Posey because "I just like his intensity."
The NBA's second-leading scorer, Durant attended the Giants' series finale against the Colorado Rockies in his first visit to AT&T Park - along with teammate Nick Collison and other representatives of the Thunder. Durant also posed for a photo with World Series MVP Pablo Sandoval near the indoor batting cage and then with others during a quick visit to the clubhouse. Right fielder Hunter Pence presented Durant with a signed bat.
"My teammates were anxious to come, so we're coming out to support," Durant said. "Every chance I get I try to (watch). It's tough when we're in season. I'm a big Nationals fan, but I'm also a Giants fan as well."
The 6-foot-9 Durant is a former high school first baseman who acknowledges he lacked a power stroke.
"I never swung the bat too well," he said with a smile.
Durant's former Texas Longhorns teammate, Damion James, played with Giants first baseman Brandon Belt when they were kids growing up in Texas.
Durant knows Thursday's game at Oracle Arena will be a challenge for the Thunder (57-21), still in the chase for the No. 1 overall seed in the Western Conference. The Warriors clinched just their second playoff berth since 1994 on Tuesday night.
"They've been playing well," Durant said. "We're going to have a tough test with them tomorrow."
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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