Newsday Tuesday: August 4 Edition

Welcome, August! Which also means humidity here in DC. As we all are trying to survive the heat, let's go inside, cool down, and catch up with this week's happenings in the world of feminist news with this week's edition of Newsday Tuesday!

Global
The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) has approved mifepristone, also known as RU-486, for use through the seventh week of pregnancy. Last week's ruling stipulates that the drug can be administered by doctors in a hospital but can not be sold in pharmacies.

On Saturday, a gay youth center was attacked by a gunman in Tel Aviv, Israel. A masked man entered the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association building and opened fire on a group of young people gathered for a weekly support group meeting. The shooter fled on foot and remains at large. Two were killed and eleven wounded in the attack.

British Quakers, or the Religious Society of Friends, have decided to perform same-sex marriages. The Quakers will formally challenge the UK laws which prohibit same-sex marriage. Quakers have allowed same-sex couples to celebrate civil partnerships with a religious commitment ceremony for more than two decades.

Shirin Ebadi, one of Iran's leading human rights defenders, is in London on Amnesty International's invitation. Her trip to the UK is part of international efforts to educate the world about the human rights abuses in Iran and support Amnesty's defense of the Defenders of Human Rights Center.

The Women and Work Commission published a report Wednesday citing an increase in the wage gap in the UK. It was found that there was an increase in the wage gap from 21.9 to 22.6 percent since 2007 and is even larger when accounting for part-time wages; the gap in those cases nears 40 percent.

A Sudanese court began hearing Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein's case on Wednesday after she was one of 13 women arrested on July 3 for wearing trousers in public. Al-Hussein was sentenced earlier this month to 40 lashings, but as a public information officer for the United Nations, she has immunity from the flogging.

On Wednesday, security forces in Nigeria freed approximately 180 women and children who were held by the radical Boko Haram, an extremist Islamic group believed to be responsible for attacks on police stations and government sites this week that have left 150 people dead.

The Tanzania Women's Bank, a new bank created to empower women, opened last week in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Iranian women's rights activist, lawyer, and journalist Shadi Sadr was released from prison Tuesday, eleven days after she was beaten and arrested while walking to a prayer service in Tehran.

The Dutch organization Women on Waves cancelled all upcoming trips of its so-called floating abortion clinic. The "abortion boat" docked in international waters and provided abortion pills and information about reproductive health to women all over the world.

National
The White House announced last week that President Barack Obama will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to a number of pioneering feminists and civil rights leaders. The medal is the highest honor a civilian can receive and given to those who make significant contributions in world peace, culture, or other public pursuits. The recipients of the medal will include: Nancy Goodman Brinker, Edward Kennedy, Billie Jean King, Reverend Joseph Lowery, Harvey Milk, Sandra Day O'Connor, Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 Tuesday to approve Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the US Supreme Court. The committee's decision means that a full Senate vote on Sotomayor's confirmation is likely to occur next week.

An amendment to the Labor, Health, and Human Services bill that sought to ban all federal funding for Planned Parenthood was defeated last week in the House by a vote of 247 to 183.

Senator Kirstin Gillibrand (D-NY) announced last Monday that a Senate hearing on the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on homosexuals in the military will be held in the fall.

States
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cut $489 million Thursday from the state budget passed last week by the state legislature. The cuts were directed primarily towards health and human services programs, and will eliminate all state funding for domestic violence shelters, forcing these centers close or seek new sources of funding.

Photo courtesy of Tim Pearce on Flikr.com