Witchy Woman

"Two female high school students in Oklahoma are firing back at their school for refusing to let them graduate after discovering the two are a couple.

According to KWTV News, 18-year-old Melissa McKenzie said she was kicked out of Del City High School in Del City, Okla., at the beginning of the semester when the principal found out she was living with her girlfriend instead of her family. The principal then told her if she returned to her family's home, she would be welcomed back to school."

"A waiter in Santa Maria, California, is recovering in hospital after he was stabbed for "being gay".
According to Associated Press, police said the unnamed waiter was at work in a Denny's restaurant in the early hours of Thursday morning when 24-year-old Curtis Martin tapped on the window and asked to use the toilet.
Mr Martin was let inside and allegedly asked the waiter if he was gay. When he said he was, police say Mr Martin stabbed him in the neck and throat with a knife.
The waiter is expected to survive his injuries. Mr Martin has been charged with attempted murder and committing a hate crime."

"A group of parents say their children with disabilities experienced waterboarding-like torture” and other forms of abuse at the hands of two teacher’s aides at a Montana middle school.

Now, the teacher’s aides, Julie Parish and Kristina Marie Kallies, face felony charges of assault on a minor and endangering the welfare of children in connection with the alleged abuse in a special education classroom.

Witnesses say that students were subjected to water torture and forced to eat their own vomit. Further, parents say they suspect students were also confined to closets.

Parents noticed that students came home with bruises, bite marks, burnt fingertips and missing hair.

The students, who have a variety of disabilities including autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy, were unable to speak up about the problems due to their disabilities."

"Afghan officials accused militants of launching a poison gas attack today that caused dozens of schoolgirls to collapse with headaches and nausea as they waited for a Qu'ran reading.
The Taliban and other Islamist groups have regularly attacked girls' schools in Afghanistan, and the second apparent poisoning in two days has raised concerns that they have found a new weapon to scare girls into staying at home.
Students were gathering in the yard of Aftab Bachi school in Mahmud Raqi, in Kapisa province, for a morning reading of the Qu'ran when a strange odour filled the area. First one girl collapsed, then others, the school's headteacher, Mossena, said from her
hospital bed. Teachers told the rest of the students to go home. Mossena said she did not know what happened next because she too collapsed.
At least 98 people were admitted, including 84 students, 11 teachers and two cleaners, said Khalid Enayat, the hospital's deputy director. He said doctors were monitoring the condition of about 30 students.
The incident was the third alleged poisoning at a girls' school in a matter of weeks. Yesterday, 61 schoolgirls and one teacher went to hospital in the neighbouring Parwan province with a sudden illness that caused some to pass out. In late April, dozens of girls were taken to hospital in Parwan after being sickened by what officials said were strong fumes or a possible poison gas cloud.
"The enemies of Afghanistan are behind this poisoning," said the Kapisa education director, Abdul Gani Hedayat. "I am 100% certain it is poison. Ninety-eight people suddenly fell sick. This isn't something that happens just normally." He said blood samples had been sent to the capital, Kabul, for testing.
An interior ministry spokesman, Zemeri Bashary, said officials suspected some sort of gas poisoning in Kapisa, and police were still investigating.
The Kapisa patients complained of similar symptoms to those in the Parwan incidents, including headaches, vomiting and shivering, said Aziz Agha, a doctor treating the girls.
Sonya Sidiqi, 13, said she smelled something like cigarette smoke, "then my head started hurting and I started throwing up". Sidiqi said she was feeling better after resting at the hospital but was still dizzy and nauseous.
Another pupil, 11-year-old Tahira, said she planned to go back to school when she recovered, but was afraid to do so. "I'm going to be scared when I go back to school. What if we die?" she said.
Conservative groups in Afghanistan oppose education for girls, who were not allowed to attend school under the 1996-2001 Taliban regime. Militants in the south have previously assaulted schoolgirls by spraying acid in their faces and burning down schools. Scores of Afghan schools have been forced to close because of violence.
North-east Afghanistan, where the three recent apparent poisonings have taken place, is typically less conservative. No group has claimed responsibility for the mass illnesses.
A Parwan education official said no evidence of an attack had been found after yesterday's incident. He said one student had fallen seriously ill before the others, and suggested some of the symptoms could have been psychological. A Parwan health official said they were awaiting blood test results."

"A video showing a teenage girl being flogged by Taliban fighters has emerged from the Swat Valley in Pakistan, offering a shocking glimpse of militant brutality in the once-peaceful district, and a sign of Taliban influence spreading deeper into the country.
The two-minute video, shot using a mobile phone, shows a burka-clad woman face down on the ground. Two men hold her arms and feet while a third, a black-turbaned fighter with a flowing beard, whips her repeatedly.
"Please stop it," she begs, alternately whimpering or screaming in pain with each blow to the backside. "Either kill me or stop it now."
A crowd of men stands by, watching silently. Off camera a voice issues instructions. "Hold her legs tightly," he says as she squirms and yelps.
After 34 lashes the punishment stops and the wailing woman is led into a stone building, trailed by a Kalashnikov-carrying militant.
Reached by phone, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan claimed responsibility for the flogging.
"She came out of her house with another guy who was not her husband, so we must
punish her. There are boundaries you cannot cross," he said. He defended the Taliban's right to thrash women shoppers who were inappropriately dressed, saying it was permitted under Islamic law."

"A mother and her boyfriend gave the woman's 13-year-old daughter rum and drugs so the mother's boyfriend could try to get her pregnant, police in Uniontown said.
The adults were charged March 16 in connection with a plot to impregnate the girl because they wanted a baby and the mother is infertile."

"A Northern California family is expected to be torn apart on Friday when Shirley Tan is scheduled to be deported back to the Philippines, leaving behind her life partner and their 12 year old twin sons.
Tan and Jaylynn “Jay” Mercado were married in San Francisco in 2004. Their marriage was voided, but even if it still were in effect the federal Defense of Marriage Act prevents Mercado from sponsoring her partner of 23 years for immigration. Were the women a married opposite-sex couple, Tan could be legal.
“From the moment my sons were born we have never been apart. It’s tearing me apart to have to leave without them,” said Tan.
Legislation was re-introduced in Congress last month that would allow Americans in a same-sex relationship to sponsor their “permanent partners” for legal residency in the United States."

"Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, has signed a law which "legalises" rape, women's groups and the United Nations warn. Critics claim the president helped rush the bill through parliament in a bid to appease Islamic fundamentalists ahead of elections in August.
In a massive blow for women's rights, the new Shia Family Law negates the need for sexual consent between married couples, tacitly approves child marriage and restricts a woman's right to leave the home, according to UN papers seen by The Independent.
"It is one of the worst bills passed by the parliament this century," fumed Shinkai Karokhail, a woman MP who campaigned against the legislation. "It is totally against women's rights. This law makes women more vulnerable."

The law regulates personal matters like marriage, divorce, inheritance and sexual relations among Afghanistan's minority Shia community.
"It's about votes," Ms Karokhail added. "Karzai is in a hurry to appease the Shia because the elections are on the way."
The provisions are reminiscent of the hardline Taliban regime, which banned women from leaving their homes without a male relative. But in a sign of Afghanistan's faltering steps towards gender equality, politicians who opposed it have been threatened."

"Police said two men were beaten unconscious Sunday morning because they are gay, and the people who assaulted them haven't been found yet.
Investigators said the victims, who are from Washington state, were on the beach near downtown Seaside at about 3 a.m. when three or four men attacked them. Investigators said the beatings are hate crimes.
The Seaside police chief said he has put two full-time detectives on the case and they are trying to find any witnesses who were on the beach Sunday morning and may have seen who was responsible for severely beating the two men.
"It's a small town. Only time it gets crazy is when there's a lot of tourists and people in town," said Evan White, who works in Seaside.

Investigators said around 3 a.m. the victims were sitting next to a beach fire with three or four other people, and when the two men got up to walk to the ocean, they were attacked and beaten unconscious because they are gay. Investigators said when the victims woke up they helped each other to a nearby hotel where they called for help and were taken to a local hospital.
Mica Macdonald works at a Seaside hotel and said Seaside is not a dangerous place, but he said it's a bad idea to stay on beach after dark unless you're in a big group.
"It's a great place to hang out, but not a great place to hang out at night I don't think," Macdonald said.
There were several people who were sitting next to the fire in front of the Best Western Hotel at the time of the attack and police would like to talk to them.
Anyone with information in the case should contact Seaside police."