“She might be the first woman of color that females in male-dominated countries have seen as confident, bright, educated, articulate and persuasive,” says Barbara Perry, author of Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier. • A mother in Brazil partially severed her boyfriend’s penis after her teenage daughter accused him of raping her from age seven. The man had reconstructive surgery and the mother is still on the run. • A federal judge upheld a $100 million jury verdict for Mattel Inc. over the rights to the Bratz dolls. Mattel sued the makers of Bratz dolls in 2004, accusing designer Carter Bryant of developed the concept for Bratz while working for Mattel. • Spanish police arrested a doctor who is suspected of using a pen camera to film female employeesin a locker room while they were undressing. He would leave his lab coat in a strategically placed area with the camera in the pocket. • Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have seized a rare 2-year-old female gorilla from traffickers at an airport. She was hidden under clothes in the bottom of a bag for more than six hours and was suffering from over-heating, dehydration, and a wounded leg when she was discovered. • But 20-year-old Amy Thomas is the support Roxana Saberi, an American journalist jailed in Iran. Saberi has been on a hunger strike in prison for about a week. • In one of the most insane justifications for sexual assault that we’ve ever heard, a dentist convicted of a dozen counts of sexual battery for molesting his patients said he wasn’t fondling the women’s breasts, but massaging their chests as treatment for the jaw condition TMJ. • A 24-year-old New York police criminologist was found strangled with the cord from a cell phone charger, with a knife stuck in her neck, and her stomach burned with an iron. Her roommate slept all night in the room next door before finding her body, but is not a suspect. • In an editorial, psychologist Michael Oberschneider says he’s seen increased symptoms mental distress among his clients due to the bad economy, including anxiety, stress and depression, marital and parenting conflicts focused on spending, trouble sleeping, and stress-induced stomach pain and headaches. He says, “What I hear from my clients and colleagues suggests that the financial downturn and continued uncertainty have overtaxed us emotionally.” • In Lebanon, the health minister has advised people to discontinue the traditional greeting of kissing the cheek three times to first confirmed case of swine flu, but the minister in charge of the health department says is should be referred to as “Mexico flu,” because pork is non-kosher. The minister is a member of one of the ultra-Orthodox political parties. Haaretz columnist Benjamin Hartman, criticized Israel’s “demented Legoland” political system, saying that only in Israel could “a man who can’t say the word ‘vagina'” be put in charge of a ministry that supervises teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.” • Stylists and models from around the country competed last week in the International Fantasy Hair Competition in New Hampshire. The winner was model Amaris Brown and stylist Kevin Carter of Detroit for “Proud Peacock,” a big spray of feathers with hair shaped into what looked like the bird’s tail feathers. •
