A housewife has told a court she wanted one final roll in the feathers with her husband before divorcing him - according, says she, to tribal custom. But John Sakapenda, the husband of Goretti Muyutu, told the court she had stayed away from their home for several months and he therefore would not agree, because she might have contracted HIV. Muyutu had argued to the High Court in Chingola that tribal custom required Sakapenda to be a partner in a sexual union before divorce could be considered. The judge declined, saying it was only too clear the couple were no longer in love, and granted the divorce, says Reuters, adding that Murutu wept when the verdict was read. An estimated one out of five Zambians between 19 and 49 is infected with HIV or suffers full-blown AIDS.
AUCKLAND, NZ - Eighteen girls were killed in Tuvalu's worst disaster - they tried escaping their burning boarding school dormitory and were electrocuted. The girls were locked in, according to Prime Minister Ionatana Ionatana, to protect them from male classmates. The 18 girls plus an adult matron died in the fire. Ionatana says it's standard practice to lock the girls in the dorm - while the boys from whom they're locked away to keep them safe are not, ordinarily. The cause of the fire is said to have been a candle, and electricity spread the blaze. The fire has caused a change in the lock-in policy; the girls' dorm will now have security fences around them. But the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre has attacked the old policy, saying it was only too widespread around the South Pacific. "Is this not a question of the safety and security of women and girls? How do we join the people of Tuvalu in mourning the untimely death of these our sisters? We can speak to this issue to the whole world and intensify our efforts to make the world safe for women and girl," the group says. "Some boarding schools through their puritanical and out-dated ideas of female chastity lock girls up so they do not get up to mischief. It is utterly shameful and condemnatory of this world that in this day and age we have to lock up young girls, that women have to make prisoners of themselves not only because of the constant threat of violence but because of society's blatant discrimination with regard to adolescent sexuality."
PHOENIX, AZ - Arizona may be getting ready to give law enforcement new or upgraded tools to hunt down child porn. State attorney general Janet Napolitano says state law needs to be updated to cover e-mail, widespread Internet usage, and other improvements in technology and cyberspace. The Computer Crime Act of 2000 has the backing of the state House of Representatives and is going to the full state Senate. It would strengthen law enforcement's hand in tracking criminal Web activity and hold electronic evidence - not to mention protecting computer technicians who report child porn to police from civil liability and making it a felony to solicit children online by transmitting sexually-oriented materials to them or their schools. Bill sponsors say the package would update those parts in state criminal codes which aren't covered on cyberspace terms.
--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
