Current Issues

Older women who have experienced abusive relationships are to be given a voice as part of a University of Nottingham study.

Up to 40 women aged over 65 who have lived through domestic abuse will be interviewed about their experiences by researchers from the University's School of Nursing.

Their unique insight into this complex and largely hidden phenomenon will be used to produce an online learning resource for healthcare professionals on how to effectively identify and support older patients who they suspect may be suffering abuse at the hands of their partner or have experienced abuse in the past.

The one-year project has been funded with a £31,498 grant from The Burdett Trust for Nurses, an independent charitable trust that aims to support and promote the nursing contribution to healthcare.

A member of women's faction, Fatima Aalia, said here on Monday that the faction intends to change into a ‘women and family faction' in parliament in order to facilitate the path toward establishing a ‘women and family committee'.

In an interview with the Mehr News Agency, Aalia refuted a claim that currently men are members of the women faction, saying that the faction only consists of female lawmakers.

However, she said if a faction of women and family is established then male MPs can be members of the faction to discuss bills and proposals related to women and family.

She added that the establishment of a women and family faction will serve as a catalyst to propose the formation of a professional ‘women and family committee' which needs a two-thirds parliamentary vote.

Women's contribution to social and economic activities does not necessarily lead to any changes in their home duties, the result of a new study by a faculty member of Allameh Tabatabaii University showed.

Conducted by Zohreh Khosravi under the theme of "studying family problems", the research clarified that women, regardless of their social status, working hours, and income rate take on the majority of duties at home by themselves.

"Today, women's employment has changed their viewpoint on sharing home chores and managing the family's economy", the report added.

Half of the women studied in the research believe in sharing responsibilities. And a great percentage of them spend their total income for everyday family expenses.

A 58 years old blogger was arrested after accusing a judge for prostituting herself.  The blogger says he says no problem serving his three months sentence and believes he has done nothing wrong. 

 

Malaysian authorities have arrested a second blogger, this time for displaying an upside down national flag on his website, according to a report on Thursday.

It emerged at a forum by CSOs to herald the UNCTAD conference that Sub-Saharan Africa in particular is experiencing a growing informalization of labour relations with dire consequences for women.

The character of employment in countries in the region is found in the informal economy where majority of women make a living, mostly in self-employment.

This has been described as one of the fallouts from economic globalization and highlights the gross global inequalities in incomes and living conditions, resulting in the exponential growth of the informal economy in many developing countries.

A new vaccine has completely eliminated a type of breast cancer tumour in tests on mice, say researchers from Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

The Wall Street Journal is borrowing elements from popular Internet hangouts like Facebook as it seeks to boost usage.

WSJ.com, one of the few news sites to restrict many of its stories to paying subscribers, is changing its layout to help nonpaying visitors navigate and identify free, ad-supported content. Those visitors will see a different home page from users who sign in as subscribers.

The new "Journal Community" is coming Tuesday as part of the site's first major revision since 2002. There, paying subscribers create personal profile pages with their real names, job details, interests and photo, much as users can at Facebook and the professional-networking site LinkedIn.

Community members will be able to comment on individual stories, create discussion groups on specific topics and ask one another for advice on such topics as starting small businesses or finding a place to take clients during a business trip, say, in Prague.

The Journal's online audience has been growing fast, and nonpaying visitors make up the lion's share. WSJ.com has 4.7 million visitors in July, nearly twice July 2007's total of 2.4 million, according to comScore Inc. Only about 5 percent of the site's users are paying subscribers, the Journal said.

I'm a huge fan of social networking, loving the opportunities it gives me to interact with friends online, make new contacts, and keep in touch with people who I wouldn't otherwise be able to. But I'm 31 years of age, and am able to control my own online persona. Which is why I find the idea of social networks for babies an utterly bizarre and contemptible one.

The telecoms regulator has begun issuing new licences that will permit operators to build their own networks, just a week after a court victory clarified the law and opened the sector up to hugely increased competition.

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) will hand out two types of licences to replace those that became defunct when the Electronic Communications Act was promulgated.

The most valuable version should ultimately be issued to about 300 internet service providers and other voice and data carriers, thanks to a court case instigated by Altech.