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BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Aug. 25, 2008 – On a hillside overlooking the picturesque stepped farmlands of the Rokha district in Afghanistan’s Panjshir province, a small group of people attended a ground-breaking ceremony Aug. 20 for the $130,000 Haish Saidqi eight-room schoolhouse. Abdul Rahman Panjshiri speaks to the crowd during a ground-breaking ceremony for the $130,000 Haish Saidqi eight-room schoolhouse, Aug. 20, 2008, in the Rokha district of Afghanistan’s Panjshir province. Panjshiri donated the land for the school. U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Jillian Torango, Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Hajji Kabiri, the province’s...

BEIJING - Just nine months before the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government's news agency, Xinhua, reported that gymnast He Kexin was 13, which would have made her ineligible to be on the team that won a gold medal this week.

Father, have you been to the mall lately and watched an unsupervised group of teenage girls get hit on by the ubiquitous male oxygen thieves? Pretty disturbing, eh? What’s even more mind numbing is the number of beautiful young ladies who actually give these scat based boys the time of day. Unreal. Ticks you off now, doesn’t it? If you have a pre-teen niña, then more than likely after watching those mall chicks capitulate to the weird male critter’s advances, you probably just swore to God that your daughter will never grow up to be one of “those girls” who...

Leggy lasses in short skirts are proving to be a biggest threat to road safety of male drivers. A new research has shown that car crashes shoot up in summers as most male drivers get distracted eyeing babes in sexy summer outfits. According to the survey by website uSwitch.com, over a quarter admit being distracted after spotting a hot woman walk past or in another car The sexy summer outfits have even made 7pct of male drivers have a crash or a near miss. The study shows accidents shoot up by 50pct on the hottest days of the year. Some...

Billings, MT (LifeNews.com) -- Girls Inc. is back in the news over abortion and now the group for young women is teaming up with Planned Parenthood. The organization, which has come under fire for adopting a pro-abortion position, is conducting workshops in Montana with the nation's largest abortion business. The girls group came under fire in 2005 for adopting a statement saying it backs abortion and supports the Roe v. Wade decision that ushered in an era of approximately 50 million abortions.At the time, pro-life groups called for a boycott of the American Girl doll because the company making...

A new report by the British charity ActionAid indicates that unborn baby girls are being disproportionately aborted in some areas of India, while significant numbers who live until birth are being deliberately neglected and left to die. In one area in the state of Punjab, there are only 300 girls for every 1,000 boys among high cast families, the report claims. ActionAid joined Canada's International Development Research Center (IDRC) to produce the Disappearing Daughters report, the BBC says. After interviewing more than 6,000 households in sites across five states in northwestern India, researchers found that the proportion of girls to...

In India baby girls are being disproportionately aborted or neglected and left to die. In one area in the state of Punjab, there are only 300 girls for every 1,000 boys among high cast families, the report claims. The vice president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) reacts to the situation by discussing about what the Church is doing and about his hopes for the future Findings from areas across five states in north and north-west India reveal that the asymmetrical sex ratio between girls and boys has not only worsened but is accelerating compared to the last...

Several years ago my husband borrowed a Shania Twain CD from the library. When my then 5-year-old daughter saw me roll my eyes at the barely dressed singer's provocative poses on the liner notes, she was smitten. She played the CD over and over, tossing her hair and wiggling her hips in imitation of those photos, oblivious to the innuendo but aware that she was doing something daring and rebellious. What, I thought, am I going to do when she's 13? Reading The Lolita Effect five years later, I wonder why that episode even stands out in my memory. To...

One problem with one-issue activists, it seems, is that they often view matters from only one dimension. This has always been one of the characteristics of feminists. Men get blame for being history’s conquerors and killers, for instance, but no credit for being its innovators and healers. We will hear about how women “create life” while men only destroy it, but forgotten are the fruits of men’s labors. Were it not for male medical advances that virtually eliminated female death during childbirth, many feminists wouldn’t be around to crow about their fecundity. Given this misandrist atmosphere, it’s not surprising that...

Bad guys really do get the most girls 18 June 2008 NewScientist.com news service Mason Inman NICE guys knew it, now two studies have confirmed it: bad boys get the most girls. The finding may help explain why a nasty suite of antisocial personality traits known as the "dark triad" persists in the human population, despite their potentially grave cultural costs. The traits are the self-obsession of narcissism; the impulsive, thrill-seeking and callous behaviour of psychopaths; and the deceitful and exploitative nature of Machiavellianism. At their extreme, these traits would be highly detrimental for life in traditional human societies. People...

It's sweltering in Boston, and a dozen Tufts University coeds are out in shorts and tanks, attracting the usual stares. Only today the stares are for a different reason: the girls are huddled around a 750-pound machine that looks like a spaceship, long and wide with a bubble-shaped cockpit open to reveal a mass of pipes and wires. It's actually a solar car—one they've built from the ground up and hope to race next year. Suddenly sparks fly, and the girls jump back. They may be engineering whizzes, but they know a hazard when they see one. They call a...

HEY!!! What about "The Avenue"/"Avenyn" in Gothenburg (second largest city of Sweden) and Tylösand beach in the nearby Swedish West Coast city of Halmstad?? Like a certain Per Gessle of Roxette, - remember the hit "It must have been love (but it's over now)" feautured in Pretty Woman? - a native of Halmstad, put it: "The West Coast girls are the best thing on Earth!" The artricle: A survey by Traveler's Digest, a US travel magazine has made a list of the cities that are home to the world's most beautiful women. Stockholm came out on top. Rejecting the notion...

No Suspects Or Motive In Case; Best Friends, 11 And 13, Shot To Death On Rural Road TULSA, Okla. (CBS) No suspect or motive has been identified in the mysterious killing of two girls who were shot to death along a dirt road in rural Okfuskee County, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. On Sunday, the bodies of 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker and 13-year-old Taylor Paschal-Placker were found on an isolated county road near this small town, about 70 miles south of Tulsa. The pair, best friends who lived a few miles apart in an impoverished part of the...

Women from the Japanese city of Obama celebrate its U.S. namesake Barack as the Democratic presidential nominee. Obama City in Japan has embraced the Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency, and tourism is on the increase, especially from American visitors. Some of the merchandise on sales includes "Obama" t-shirts and "Obama" bean cakes, while a Barack Obama statue has recently been unveiled.

Dozens of gangster girls playing hooky from school battled each other in a bloody knife fight on the streets of Brooklyn yesterday afternoon that ended with two teens hospitalized and two more arrested on assault charges, cops said.

5/13/2008 - KABUL, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- Nearly 70 members of Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan delivered backpacks, toys and school supplies to the Zabuli Education Center for Girls and Women May 8 outside of Kabul. American servicemembers from Camp Eggers visited the school as part of the volunteer community relations program to provide humanitarian assistance to the local communities in Kabul. Master Sgt. Billie Wilson, a member of Camp Eggers' Force Integration and Training division, who recently arrived at Camp Eggers, said this would not be her last trip with the program. "I did this as a means to give back,...

Students stand in front of the newly renovated Omah Moktar School for Girls in the Qadisiyah Apartment Complex in Mahmudiyah May 8. U.S. Army courtesy photo. CAMP STRIKER — Iraqi citizens celebrated the completion of construction at the Omah Moktar School for Girls in the Qadisiyah Apartment Complex in Mahmudiyah, about 20 kilometers south of Baghdad, May 8. After nearly three months of construction, the Moktar School’s approximately 600 students can now enjoy new windows, gates and doors, as well as new auditorium furniture. Exterior improvements included raising the outer wall as an added security measure.“The educational environment was greatly...

[Peshawar] Unidentified attackers set fire to a girls’ high school and planted bombs in its science laboratory in the Charbagh area of the conflict-ridden Swat district in North West Pakistan. School watchman, Toti Gul, said that 40-50 men entered the school at midnight and used gasoline to set ablaze nine rooms of the only girls’ high school in the area. “The faces of the armed men were covered and they were chanting slogans. They directed me to take away all the copies of the Holy Quran from the school building. When I did that they set the school on fire...

This week, tween star Miley Cyrus shocked America when she crossed over to the dark side of adulthood. When Vanity Fair released photos of 15-year-old Miley draped in a sheet, concerned parents and Disney execs were aghast that their sugary pop idol had become a sexualized young woman. Parents told reporters that they were no longer going to let their daughters watch Hannah Montana, Miley’s Disney-produced television show-turned-musical-act-turned-brand-phenomenon. Internet message boards, populated mostly by furious mothers, advocated for a massive Hannah Montana paraphernalia bonfire. There are rumblings that Disney might even replace Miley with her up-and-coming co-star, Serena Gomez. Miley...

In 1983 six businessmen in Clearwater Florida opened the first Hooters. Their simple formula of great food served in a fun atmosphere by All American Hooters Girls in Orange Shorts has proven more than successful. Since that humble beginning Hooters has grown to be a world famous brand with over 440 locations in 43 states and 25 countries. In celebration of our 25th anniversary, we are passing along some of our success directly to our customers with a $25,000 giveaway on the 25th of every month!

Ashley Qualls doesn't sound like a typical high school student. Maybe that's because the 17-year-old is the CEO of a million-dollar business. Ashley is the head of whateverlife.com, a website she started when she was just 14 — with eight dollars borrowed from her mother. Now, just three years later, the website grosses more than $1 million a year, providing Ashley and her working class family a sense of security they had never really known. It all started with capitalism 101, the law of supply and demand. Ashley became interested in graphic design just as the online social networking craze...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA, Iraq, March 14, 2008 – Their school’s infrastructure may be behind the times, but education has been thrust into the modern era at an Iraqi school for girls. Army Sgt. Amanda Timmer of the Wasit Provincial Reconstruction Team in Iraq, talks with students at the Kut Girls Secondary School after the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Internet center March 10, 2008. The center features 10 new computers and furniture. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Stacy Niles, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Thanks to the Wasit Provincial Reconstruction Team, the Kut Girls Secondary School...

Boys And Girls Brains Are Different: Gender Differences In Language Appear BiologicalNew research shows that areas of the brain associated with language work harder in girls than in boys during language tasks, and that boys and girls rely on different parts of the brain when performing these tasks. (Credit: iStockphoto/Rich Legg) ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2008) — Although researchers have long agreed that girls have superior language abilities than boys, until now no one has clearly provided a biological basis that may account for their differences. For the first time -- and in unambiguous findings -- researchers from Northwestern University and...

Cameron Diaz claims to have always been a tomboy. That's how she explains her tendency to go braless, in case you were dying to know. Britney Spears, Charlize Theron, Hilary Swank, Michelle Pfeiffer, Keri Russell and Keira Knightley all say they have, or had, a whole lot of tomboy in them. It's chic in these post-feminist times for beautiful female stars to admit to a certain "maleness." Ordinary women, too, now often wear a tomboy childhood, once tinged with varying degrees of anxiety (why can I not find it within myself to be a dainty princess? will my daughter grow...

Local workers from Salman Pak, Iraq, and Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, work to refurbish the Zarqua al Yamama Girls’ School, Feb. 28. U.S. Army photo courtesy of 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment. FOB HAMMER — U.S. Soldiers visited the Zarqua al Yamama girls’ school in Salman Pak, Feb. 28, to check the progress of a refurbishment project there. The school’s poor condition was brought to the attention of 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment leaders by members of the Salman Pak council, said Capt. Mathew Givens, from Columbus, Ga., civil-military operations officer for 1-15th Inf. Regt.“The school was...

Hillary Clinton isn’t the only woman struggling to find an ideal mix of feminism and femininity, one that allows a woman to behave both like and unlike a man without being penalized either way. Mothers of daughters, even if they don’t support the former first lady, feel, if not her pain, at least her conflict. You need only look at the staggering success, in a publishing industry gone soft, of two advice manuals for young women, “The Daring Book for Girls” and “The Girls’ Book: How to Be the Best at Everything.” Those volumes were inspired by “The Dangerous Book...

Click to Play: The Joe Fund "Fat Girls Need Loving Too" http://www.myspace.com/joefund 

(IsraelNN.com) Allegations of police abuse and a call for a public fast day Thursday by leading rabbis herald the third week in jail for seven teenage girls arrested for building a hilltop outpost. Police forced several of the girls, who are all under the age of 16, to strip in prison, according to their parents. Police also subjected the youngsters to sleep deprivation, a tactic used by the Shabak (General Security Service) when dealing with ‘ticking-bomb’ terrorists, to break their determination. The girls have been held under harsh conditions and have not yet been charged. They refuse to identify themselves...

When Josie was 2, I wrote a column about my bafflement at her girly-girlness. How could I, a person unburdened by mascara or a blowdryer, have spawned someone who so loved nail polish, frills and Hello Kitty hair accessories? At the time, I expressed shock. Today, older, wiser, and most importantly, the mother of two girls instead of one, I have more insight into Josie’s condition. (Call it Polyprincesstic Ovary Syndrome.) At 6, Josie’s favorite color is still pink; she’s obsessed with ponies, princesses, unicorns and fairies. But Maxine, spawn of the same parents, loves trucks, trains, the subway system....

Mother charged in 4 D.C. girls' deathsBy SARAH KARUSH Associated Press Writer District of Columbia police and medical examiner's office personnel remove the second body from a house where the bodies of four dead youths, estimated to be between 5 and 18 years of age, were found in varying states of decomposition in southeast Washington on Wednesday Jan. 9, 2008. WASHINGTON --A mother found in her home with the decomposing bodies of four girls was charged Thursday with murder after reportedly telling investigators that the children were possessed by demons and died in their sleep. Banita Jacks, 33, was charged...

Medics from 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, treat Nora Nasser Al Jabouri, 10, at Patrol Base Murray Aid Station, Dec. 11. Nora and her sister, Hajer Amir Al Jabouri, 4, were playing together in their backyard when a mortar landed in their yard injuring them both. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Eric Strazzeri. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Two sisters – Hajer Amir Al Jabouri, 4, and Nora Nasser Al Jabouri, 10 – were playing together in their backyard while their mother sat nearby milking the family’s cow, Dec. 11. The day began...

Little girls in the militancy-hit Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan hate a diktat issued by pro-Taliban rebels to attend school in burqas. Burqas are the only option some girls' schools in northwestern Pakistan have against being shut down or worse, being bombed. "I want to study, but not in a burqa," said Shah Rukh, a 12-year-old girl enrolled at a primary school at Saidu Sharif in Swat. Shah Rukh is just one of many girls who have learnt to speak out against the burqa diktat in the picturesque Valley. "My 11-year-old daughter cries every morning when she has to wear...

School girls from the Dur-Mandali Primary School for Girls in the city of Balad-Ruz receive supplies from the family of fallen Paratrooper Spc. Michael Rodriguez. Spc. Rodriquez's family said he wrote home about the wonderful kids he had met and loved. Photo by 1st Lt. Scott Marler, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs. BALAD-RUZ — The note read, “The school supplies that we are giving you today are from the family of a Soldier who died in Iraq, who loved the children of Iraq. His name is Specialist Michael Rodriguez.� The speaker is Capt. James Goethals,...

WOMEN ARE THE chatty sex, using three times as many words each day as men. They are society's great communicators. The verbal parts of their brains are larger than men's and they are hard-wired for empathy, but they lack a natural ability to reach the top levels of math and science.

BAGHDAD, Oct. 22, 2007 – The high point of 1st Lt. William Bass’ deployment to Iraq so far wasn’t a raid or some other combat operation; it was the sight of two little girls playing on a brand new swing set. Washington, D.C., native Army 1st Lt. William Bass (right), a fire support officer with Troop C, 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, out of Fort Stewart, Ga., points out improvements made to the Al Zuhor girl’s orphanage in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah district during a visit by Multinational Corps Iraq commanding general, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, on Oct. 16, 2007....

25 Year-Old Beauty Seeks Rich Banker (Updated) 05/10/2007 The following exchange took place on Craigslist - the investment banker's response is a classic! 'What am I doing wrong? Okay, I’m tired of beating around the bush. I’m a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I’m articulate and classy. I’m not from New York. I’m looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don’t think I’m overreaching at all....

You can call them gluttons for punishment. They've begun calling themselves that. After no children or parents showed for Planned Parenthood of West Texas' Real Life. Real Talk. sex education session in August, organization officials rescheduled the workshop for Tuesday night at the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest at South 6th and Meander streets. This time, after four teachers and a program director drove two hours from Midland, one girl attended. "She'll be one of the best educated young women in the community after tonight," said Carla Holeva, vice president of community affairs for Planned Parenthood of West Texas....

Melinda Tankard Reist | Friday, 17 August 2007 Focus on media: A toxic culture for girls The shameless exploitation of little girls by commercial interests is poisoning a generation. Living in a sex-saturated society we are used to seeing the image of women cheapened. But baby dolls who know how to "flaunt" their sexuality? Provocative underwear for little girls, and "pole dancing" kits for them to entertain their families and friends with suggestive moves - and be paid in play dollars for it? If we care about children the time has come to put a stop to this ugly...

CHLORIDE, Ariz. - Two girls riding an all-terrain vehicle fell into a mine shaft, killing one while the other remained trapped overnight, authorities said Sunday. The 10-year-old girl was pulled out in the morning with injuries. A rope team descended into the vertical shaft, where the 13-year-old girl was found dead, sheriff's spokeswoman Sandy Edwards said. Efforts were under way to remove her body. Edwards did not know how far down the girls had fallen and did not know whether the girls' relationship. The pair went missing about 7 p.m. Saturday and never came back. Officials discovered they were the...

Zulma Arreola's cell phone rings incessantly. She spends a large part of her workday on it, listening to and counseling about 40 Latina girls, ages 11 to 18, who are affected -- or at risk of being affected -- by gangs. Youth gangs are growing in east Multnomah County, Arreola said, and that's why the culturally specific gang intervention program at El Programa Hispano is crucial. Arreola builds rapport with the girls, acts as a role model and visits the girls and their parents at home to help them leave or avoid the gang lifestyle. "We do anything that will...

Christian Alternative to Secular Girl Scouts Growing, Expanding http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070803/28750_Christian_Alternative_to_Secular_Girl_Scouts_Growing,_Expanding.htm http://tinyurl.com/36w64j American Heritage Girls (AHG), a Christian alternative to Girl Scouts, has entered a new phase of growth this month with plans to expand to all 50 states by 2008. Fri, Aug. 03, 2007 Posted: 20:14:11 PM EST American Heritage Girls (AHG), a Christian alternative to Girl Scouts, has entered a new phase of growth this month with plans to expand to all 50 states by 2008. The 12-year-old organization offering girls programs that are God-centered has experienced unprecedented growth in recent years while large secular organizations such as t Girl...

One of the two Portland, Oregon, boys charged with felony sex abuse for swatting girls speaks out.

There is a little-known battle for survival going in some parts of the world. Those at risk are baby girls, and the casualties are in the millions each year. The weapons being used against them are prenatal sex selection, abortion and female infanticide — the systematic killing of girls soon after they are born. According to the ’s (UNFPA) 2005 State of the World Population Report, these practices, combined with neglect, have resulted in at least 60 million "missing" girls in Asia, creating gender imbalances and other serious problems that experts say will have far reaching consequences for years...

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Two Florida women have sued "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis and his film company, alleging a sexually explicit video was released without their consent. In the federal lawsuit filed Monday in Panama City, Brooke Pastolic and Christina Brose said they were enticed to board a "Girls Gone Wild" tour bus with the promise of free clothing. Once onboard, they allegedly were given alcoholic drinks even though both were younger than 21. According to the lawsuit, the cameramen then coerced the women into exposing themselves and engaging in sexual activities, but repeatedly stated they would not...

A new study has found that many more women are leaving economically moribund Eastern Germany. The result is a new, frustrated and largely male underclass. And many of them find succor in the neo-Nazi scene. The problem has been well known for years: Ever since the mid-1990s, young Eastern Germans have been fleeing the region due to a lack of economic opportunity, hoping to find jobs in the western part of the country. Some 1.5 million have already left the region -- roughly 10 percent of the population of East Germany when the Berlin Wall fell. Even worse, most of...

LETTER TO A YOUNG GIRL My dear young friend: I know that young girls like secrets, and I am going to share one with you. God has chosen your sex for you; He made you to be a girl. You know that girls today are often told by feminists that the Church is "sexist" and has "discriminated" against them from the very beginning. She is accused of having treated them as "inferior", less talented, less gifted, made to be man’s servants. She has denied them power in the Church, and prohibited them from receiving the highest honor, to be ordained...

CAMP TAJI — Coalition forces thwarted an al-Qaeda plot to destroy the Huda Girls’ School in Tarmiyah, said U.S. military officials Thursday. As reconstruction efforts for school systems in Iraq continued, al-Qaeda extremists targeted the Huda Girls’ School in Tarmiyah twice in the past month using improvised explosive devices and building explosives into the school house. "[It was a] sophisticated and premeditated attempt to inflict massive casualties on our most innocent victims," said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman. Recently, the al-Qaeda plan to destroy the school was disrupted when Soldiers of 2nd “Stallion”...

BOOB AL SHAM — Coalition forces assisted the city council here with the re-opening of the Boob Al Sham Girls Secondary School April 18 after a $100,000 renovation on the school building. On the first day of school nearly 600 students from ages 12 to 17 came back to the facility that now has freshly painted walls, ceilings, new light fixtures, new restrooms, fans, water fountains and repaired roofs. The renovation is just one of many projects the Boob Al Sham city council and 1st “Red Lion” Battalion 37th Field Artillery Regiment Soldiers have been bringing to fruition for the...

PANAMA CITY “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis spends his days and nights in a cold, concrete cell, isolated from almost all human contact. Francis was cut off from the medication that has kept him sane, his attorney said, and a light burning 24 hours a day has kept him awake. “He can’t sleep. He hasn’t eaten properly. He’s prone to anxiety attacks,” his lawyer, Aaron Dyer, said Wednesday night. “I know if it was me, I’d be cold and frustrated. Joe has been breaking down, and Joe Francis does not break down.” Dyer said Francis had been trying to...

...A lot of success early in life can be a real liability — if you buy into it. Brass rings keep getting suspended higher and higher as you grow older. And when you grab them, they have a way of turning into dust in your hands. Psychologists — from Alice Miller to Madeline Levine — have all kinds of words for this, but the women I know seem to experience it as living life with a gun pointed to their heads... Many, I think, never figure out how to handle the emptiness that comes when the rush of achievement fades...