News from Beneath the Line

Prince: 'It's fun being in Islamic countries'

2011-06-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian's Film&Music, Prince said: "It's fun being in Islamic countries, to know there's only one religion. There's order. You wear a burqa. There's no choice. People are happy with that." When asked about the fate of those unhappy with having no choice, he replied: "There are people who are unhappy with everything. There's a dark side to everything."

Read the full story at the Guardian

Anxiety is everywhere

2011-06-23T16:44:00.000-07:00

New research showing that the brains of city dwellers operate differently from the brains of those living in rural areas – and that this possibly explains an increase in urban mental health problems – will come as no surprise to most people. According to the study by the University of Heidelberg and McGill University, the two regions of the brain governing emotion and anxiety show signs of over-activity for city dwellers.

Read the full story at the Guardian

The world must support its widows

2011-06-23T16:43:00.000-07:00

There are 245 million widows in the world, yet their problems are often ignored. Today, on the first International Widows Day, I hope to break the silence of their suffering in order to support them to play an active role in building their families and their communities.

Read the full story at the Guardian

Keeping children at school until 8pm is only good for pushy parents

2011-06-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

Gove this week announced that free schools will be able to lengthen not just term times, but the length of the school day, too.

Free schools will be free to open 51 weeks a year, until 7pm or even 8pm – six days a week. The hours are not dissimilar to those once worked by children in the Victorian mills. It is natural for proponents to believe this will give their offspring, and our future generation, the edge – it will turn them into academic powerhouses, reeling off ancient Greek and Latin in no time at all. It would be a great idea if it wasn't such nonsense.

Read the full story at the Guardian

John Galliano: in vino veritas?

2011-06-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

One way to test the validity of John Galliano's defence against the charges of public antisemitism he's facing in France would be to give him a whopping dose of one the few drugs he seems not to have been on last year – sodium amytal (aka "truth serum"). The three judges could ask the wayward fashion designer what his feelings were about Jews, gas chambers and genocide. Perhaps that inner John, whom his lawyer describes as "a tolerant man, without hostility to religion", would emerge to confound the prosecutor. Case closed.

Read the full story at the Guardian

If you want big society, you need big religion

2011-06-23T16:39:00.000-07:00

Robert Putnam, Harvard professor of public policy, has been in London, channelling the wisdom of social capital at No 10, as well as talking at St Martins-in-the-Fields on Monday evening. That venue is the big clue to his latest findings. It could be summarised thus: if you want big society, you need big religion.

Read the full story at the Guardian

Barack Obama's real record on LGBT rights

2011-06-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

On Thursday evening, President Obama will headline the annual LGBT Leadership Council Gala in New York City, timed to coincide with Gay Pride. With tickets starting at $1,250 per plate and going up to $38,500, the event is key to shoring up Obama's 2012 war chest. It's also central to convincing the press and public that the LGBT community loves Obama, and he has our vote sewn up.

Read the full story at the Guardian

Sex with my wife is virtually non-existent. Should I tell her I'm seeing an escort?

2011-06-23T16:37:00.000-07:00

My wife finds penetrative sex difficult. Since her hysterectomy she's been unable to come properly. After excellent sex for three years, successive health and job pressures have meant it's become virtually non-existent.

I have to be so gentle, she gets thrush and is turned off. We share a bed and it's so frustrating. I've tried not to burden her with my needs because she's disabled and has a demanding job. I have a high sex drive and have been seeing escorts. One is phenomenally responsive. It gets better each time with this lady and she's encouraged me to try Viagra to overcome some impotence. The last two occasions have been so good for my confidence. I now wonder if I should tell my wife about my encounters? I do need satisfying, and it's becoming impossible not living with the person I make love to.

Read Pamela Stephenson's answer at the Guardian

Venus Williams serves a fashion ace

2011-06-23T16:35:00.000-07:00

There are some certainties about Wimbledon: that it will rain, that the TV cameras will seek out Cliff Richard and that one or other of the Williams sisters will cause a bit of fashion fuss. On opening day Venus obliged tradition and appeared on Centre Court wearing a mini lace jumpsuit. The message was louder than her trademark grunt: her bid for the championships is still in its early stages, but she's already aced the style victory. Again.

Read the full story at the Guardian

The woman at the helm in the US Navy

2011-06-23T16:34:00.000-07:00

Half a dozen F-18 fast jets streak across the sky, while below, others are flung off the top of the sprawling flight deck by steam catapult.

And In the midst of this display of naval power sits Rear Admiral Nora Tyson, the first woman to command a US carrier strike group. Adm Tyson is in charge of 75 jets, helicopters and other aircraft – together worth $45bn – plus a cluster of cruisers and destroyers, and nearly 10,000 men and women.

Read the full story at the Guardian

Yulia Tymoshenko says corruption trial aim is to destroy Ukraine opposition

2011-06-23T16:32:00.000-07:00

Her distinctive circular braid has been replaced by a loose furl of blond hair, but the unwavering gaze and the stinging rhetoric are those of old.

Seven years since she led Ukraine's orange revolution, Yulia Tymoshenko is back at centre stage as she prepares to stand as the accused in what she calls a show trial orchestrated by President Viktor Yanukovich, her sworn political foe.

Read the full story at the Guardian

Muslim Tory minister says Pakistan's treatment of women fails Islam

2011-06-23T16:30:00.000-07:00

Pakistan is failing to live up to one of the tenets of Islam which guarantees rights to all women, according to Sayeeda Warsi, the Conservative party co-chairman and minister without portfolio, who is the first Muslim to sit as a full member of the cabinet.

In a sign of Britain's impatience with Pakistan, Lady Warsi said the world's first Islamic republic is denying rights granted 1,400 years ago in the Qur'an.

Read the full story at the Guardian

Don’t forget D.C.’s homeless women in the HIV/AIDS fight

2011-06-23T16:20:00.000-07:00

Figures released last week by the D.C. Department of Health show that the District has made a dent in reducing new cases of HIV/AIDS. However, there is still an alarming reality that isn’t being addressed as publicly: Our data, based on the self-reported HIV status of our clients, suggest that homeless women in this region are nearly 150 percent more likely to suffer from the disease than the general population. There are solutions for the underlying issues that cause this disparity — issues including domestic violence, trauma and substance abuse — and they’re being addressed by some local nonprofits.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

The income gap: an American nightmare

2011-06-23T16:19:00.000-07:00

The most convincing evidence of the worsening of U.S. income distribution comes from the historical evolution of the minimum wage, the main source of earning for the poorest of the poor.

The minimum wage in 1970 was $1.60 per hour. This was increased in steps to $7.25 today. Adjusted for the inflation rate, the minimum wage in real terms in 2010 was just four-fifths of the level in 1970, down 20 percent. Over the same period, U.S. real gross domestic product increased three-fold and also doubled in per capita terms.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

Wal-Mart to help fund D.C. summer youth programs

2011-06-23T16:18:00.000-07:00

Wal-Mart and its charitable foundation are giving $25 million to support summer programs for youths across the country, including $665,000 in grants for school nutrition, jobs and learning programs in the District.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

D.C. Jesuit removed from ministry for allegedly touching child improperly

2011-06-23T16:17:00.000-07:00

A D.C. Jesuit who has served as a national leader on spiritual music and African American worship has been permanently removed from ministry after an investigator concluded that he improperly touched a child in the 1980s.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

Jury convicts self-help author of 3 counts of negligent homicide in Arizona sweat lodge deaths

2011-06-23T16:16:00.000-07:00

CAMP VERDE, Ariz. — A self-help guru was found guilty of three counts of negligent homicide Wednesday in a case that shined a spotlight on a deadly Arizona sweat lodge ceremony that ended in chaos, with participants vomiting, shaking and being dragged outside.

Jurors reached their verdict with remarkable swiftness: They took less than 10 hours to convict James Arthur Ray following a four-month trial that included hundreds of exhibits and countless hours of testimony.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

Breast implants reasonably safe, FDA says

2011-06-23T16:15:00.000-07:00

Silicone breast implants appear to be relatively safe for most women, although recipients often have them removed because of leaks, infections and other problems, federal health officials said Wednesday.

A preliminary analysis of data being collected by two companies that won approval for silicone gel-filled implants in 2006 and other data found no evidence that the implants cause breast cancer, reproductive problems, rheumatoid arthritis or other major health problems, the Food and Drug Administration said.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

A religious exemption for gay marriage?

2011-06-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

Discussion

A bill legalizing same-sex marriage for couples in New York state is at a standstill over the issue of exemptions for religious organizations and individuals. The reach of these religious protections is wide-ranging -from whether Catholic adoption agencies may reject same-sex couples, to the right of religious caterers to refuse services for gay weddings. In New York’s Marriage Equality Act, should there be exemptions for religion? What should happen when equal rights for gay citizens and the right to religious free exercise clash?

Read all the articles at the Washington Post

‘Good Enough’ parenting or perfect parenting

2011-06-23T16:12:00.001-07:00

Lori Gottlieb has just started a schoolyard brawl.

With an article in the Atlantic that hit newsstands this week, the writer, therapist and mother has lassoed an increasingly common complaint among parents, grandparents, teachers and professors: modern parents are ruining their children.

Gottlieb, who previously wrote “Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough” (Dutton, 2010) quotes other therapists, authors and a few teachers about how they’ve been witnessing a sea change among kids and teenagers. They told her that the younger generation is plagued with anxiety and paper-thin egos. The culprits, they say, are not the bad parents, but the best parents.

Read the full story in the Washington Post

How important is sex to a marriage?

2011-06-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

Many things get lost in the long haul of relationships, among them inhibitions, senses of humour, socks — and, in many cases, libido.
It is a lucky and unusual couple who, decades into a marriage, still feel the same passion for each other that ignited their early relationship.
Far more common is the story of the once-happy sex life that has waned as the years passed — that initial physical bond becoming fractured in the maelstrom of raising children, earning a living, running a house and growing older.

Read the full story at the Daily Mail

'Red wine could have led to Jimi Hendrix's death', says close friend Meic Stevens

2011-06-23T16:09:00.000-07:00

The doctor who attempted to save Jimi Hendrix on the night that the guitarist died said it was 'plausible' he was murdered because he 'drowned in red wine'.
But the iconic musician may have choked and died because he did not know how to drink the substance, close friend Meic Stevens has revealed.

Read the full story at the Daily Mail

Single mothers hardest hit by cuts - Fawcett Society

2011-06-23T16:07:00.001-07:00

Single mothers will be hardest hit by the government's programme of benefit cuts and tax rises, according to campaign group the Fawcett Society.

It estimates they will lose an average 8.5% of their income after tax by 2015.

Read the full story at the BBC

Women's gaydar (for men) improves when ovulating

2011-06-23T16:06:00.001-07:00

Trick-cyclists in Canada have found that women become much better at telling whether a man is gay – based merely on looking at a photo of his face – when they are ovulating and fertile. In the course of determining this, the psychology profs revealed that they possess highly effective scientifically-verified texts, the mere reading of which sends nubile young sorority girls into a mating frenzy.

Read the full story at the Register

British former lapdancer, her lover and the ex who found them in bed are all jailed in Dubai for having sex outside marriage

2011-06-23T16:05:00.001-07:00

A British former lapdancer, her banker lover and his jealous Brazilian model ex-girlfriend who caught them in bed have all been jailed in Dubai for having sex outside marriage.
Danielle Spencer, 31, was naked with Toby Carroll, 33, when furious Priscilla Gomez, 25, stormed into his flat, threatening them with a knife and smashing his possessions.
Police called to the scene decided that all three in the love triangle were in breach of the Arab emirate's strict morality laws and arrested them.

Read the full story at the Daily Mail