• A 91-year-old pharmacy cashier tried to fight off a robber who grabbed a handful of cash from her register. “I want him to get caught because I want to smack him,” said Florence Critelli after the attack.
The unidentified man man paid Critelli for a candy bar, then reached over to take money out of the register. “I grabbed his hand to stop him from taking the money and I just screamed,” she said. He then punched her in the chest and ran out. “He hit me good, but it didn’t hurt,” said Critelli, who insisted on finishing her shift. • Doctors are questioning the currently-accepted practice of removing ovaries to prevent the development of ovarian cancer on the grounds that it may do more harm than good. Dr. William Parker reviewed the available medical literature, and found that hysterectomies can increase the risks of coronary artery disease, hip fracture and neurologic conditions. He points out that far more women die from heart disease than ovarian cancer. • Since 1971, Ann van Dyk has bred 800 cheetahs. Van Dyk also runs one of the most successful breeding centers in the world for cheetahs, and has donated 99 acres of her own land to house the large felines. She’s come to see herself as somewhat of a mother to these animals: “A leopard will look at you with a cold eye – ‘I’m going to have you for supper.’ A cheetah looks at you the way a child does.” • A zoo in China has been accused of killing 11 rare Siberian tigers through neglect. The tigers were kept in small cages and fed nothing but chicken bones. According to reports, the zoo tried to save the tigers, but were simply unable to feed them. However, zoos have been known to purposefully kill tigers in order to sell their carcasses on the black market, and some believe that may have been what happened at the Shenyang zoo. • MGA Entertainment Inc., makers of Bratz dolls and other toys, announced yesterday that they are considering going public. However, you probably won’t be able to buy shares in the large-headed figurines anytime soon – it will be at least a few years before the company is back on its feet. • A young man who starred in a Saudi YouTube video has been arrested and charged with morality crimes for his portrayal of a sexually suggestive police officer. In the video, he flirts with a person off-camera and asks that he be “comforted” in lieu of a fine. The same man had been arrested earlier this year and charged with “inappropriate acts and others offensives, including homosexuality.” • Former New York state senator Hiram Monserrate, who was convicted of cutting his girlfriend’s face with broken glass, is trying to win his seat back. “I consider myself an advocate for the community,” he declared last night while debating his opponent for the seat, “one incident does not negate 25 years of service.” • Today a judge set a trial date for Brian David Mitchell, the man accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart. The trial is scheduled to start on November 1, but Mitchell’s federal public defender is requesting a change of venue. “The notion is, if a community is invested in a case, perhaps it needs to be moved somewhere else,” he said. He added that his client plans to plead insanity. • On Monday the U.K. paper The Evening Star ran an interview with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who says that when her ex-husband Nelson Mandela accepted the Nobel Peace Prize he “let us down.” Now she says, “I did not give … an interview. It is therefore not necessary for me to respond in any detail to the contents of a fabricated interview,” but the paper is standing by its story. • France replaced its male appointee to the group overseeing financing for a U.N. climate change initiative with a woman after people complained that the 19-person committee was all-male. The group, “includes equal representation between industrialized countries and developing countries,” said Elizabeth Becker, a member of Oxfam America, and Suzanne Ehlers, president of Population Action International in a joint blog post. “But what it does not include at all is women.” • The U.S. continues to dominate at women’s soccer, thanks to a win at the Algarve Cup. The American team defeated World No. 2 Germany 3-2, solidifying their place in on the FIFA world women’s soccer rankings. • Doctors in the UK have called on websites to remove any videos or material that romanticizes self-mutilation. A recent study found a 50% rise in the number of young people being admitted into hospitals for cutting themselves in the past five years. They believe part of the problem has to do with websites that romanticize the behavior. • Judith Townend recently noticed that men make up the vast majority of letter-writers published in the letters to the editor section of almost every major paper. She, along with writer Fiona Campbell-Howes, became curious as to why men are so much more prolific. Is it because they have more time? Or are they just more open with their opinions? • A study published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association says people who are moderately overweight may live longer. While being overweight increases your chances of dying from certain illnesses, it “was associated with significantly decreased all-cause mortality overall”. Lead researcher Katherine Flegal says, “The take-home message is that the relationship between fat and mortality is more complicated than we tend to think. It’s not a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all situation where excess weight just increases your mortality risk for any and all causes of death.” • A British study found middle-aged women have much better memories than men. In a study of nearly 10,000 middle-aged men and women, the women were able to recall a list of ten words faster and with more accuracy. • Scientists have found activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex is linked to how fast people recover from fights with their significant other. Study author Christine Hooker says this information, “could help psychologists predict how well people will respond to stressful events in their lives.” • Amnesty International released a report today that condemns the healthcare reform proposals for failing to address the crisis of maternal health in the U.S. “Reform is primarily focused on healthcare coverage and reducing healthcare costs, and even optimistic estimates predict that any proposal on the table will leave millions without access to affordable care,” said one of the authors of the report. • Mia Freedman, former editor of Australian Cosmopolitan, Cleo, and Dolly, who now runs the website Mammamia, says in a new interview that she’s concerned about “raunch” culture. “You’ve got mums doing pole classes or babies wearing T-shirts saying `I’m a tits man’ at three months,” she said. “I sense an enormous frustration and anger on my website… Women are angry because we feel like our kids are being bombarded with (sexual) things and you can’t watch them 24 hours a day. She adds, “It feels like mothers are going to lead this new wave of feminism.” •
