A feminist's demand
WATERLOO (Canada). Aug 7: Women should be able to take off their shirts in public Just as men do in the summer heat, without having to face indecent exposure charges or harassment. Canadian feminist Barbara Saunders said Tuesday, reports AFP.
A member of the Canada's Women's Legal Committee. Saunders has thrown her support behind 19-y ear-old student Gwen Jacob, now embroiled in a legal battle with Canadian Justice officials for having walked barc chcslcd down a street in Guelph.
The student, who appeared in court last week, said she wanted to protest a Canadian law which ways that women who bare their chests publicly commit an Illegal. indecent act. while men have the legal right to lake off their tops outdoors.
Indonesian convicts get conjugal rights
JAKARTA : Indonesia plans to allow prisoners to have sexual intercourse with their spouses on regular basis In the hope of cutting the number of escape attempts, the official Antara news agency said Tuesday, reports AFP.
The Minister of Justice Issued a directive to launch a pilot project called the "family visit programme” in which convicts would be allowed conjugal rights, Antara said quoting ministry officials.
The programme would try to discourage convicts from escaping, since many who tried in the past were prompted tn part because they missed their families. Correctional Institute Director General Baha ruddin I-opa said.
Under the programme, a convict who had served a specified term would be allowed to visit his family, accompanied by prison guards, for up to two days, he said.
The projects would be tried first at prisons in the Central Java town of Semarang and Ujungpandang tn South Sulawesi, according to Antara.
A miracle indeed
BEIJING : A newborn baby survived after her father left her to die under a pile of rocks for over 30 hours, an official newspaper reported from western China, reports AFP.
Xia Mingllang. a 37-year-old peasant in Ncijiang. Sichuan province, buried his nine-day-old daughter under a rock pile because he wanted a son. according to tlx- Uaoning Ixgal Dail received there today.
Xia. whose wife had already given birth to three daughters, told his neighbours the baby had died from disease.
"The cadres and masses of the village had serious doubts and Xia was forced under pressure to exhume the girt who had already been buried for over 30 hours," the newspaper said.
The father was arrested, it sad. without indicating if he had been punished.
Under China's family planning policy, parents in the countryside are fined for having more than one child In some areas or two In others. A propaganda campaign is under way to eliminate the traditional belief that sons arc better than daughters.
They like to experiment on live animals
MONTREAL : Brain researchers on Tuesday strongly defended their need to experiment on live animals in order to discover cures for Alzheimer's epilepsy and other brain diseases, reports Reuter.
Fearful that the animal rights a movement could stall progress in their field, leading neurologists a argued at the International Brain Research Organisation convention tn this Canadian city that scientists must work to recapture public support.
The public is seriously misinformed about this issue." said Colin Blakemore, a neurologist at Oxford University who said he stopped hoping the animal rights outcry would Just fade away when his family received threats from extremists.
He said a recent poll taken in Britain showed 56 per cent favoured a total ban on tests on animals. The figure rose to 72 per cent among people 24 years and younger.
Animal rights proponents have won many supporters by arguing that scientists can obtain the same results using computer models or by experimenting on Issues and cells.