Morocco rape laws cost a teen girl her life

Amina Filali, a 16 year old girl from Morocco Africa committed suicide last week. She took her own life after being raped and forced to marry the rapist. In Morocco, rape laws state that if a woman or girl is raped, and if the accused rapist agrees to marry her, the rapist will have the charges dropped. After being brutally beaten by her future husband, Amina ate rat poison. She later vomited to death in the streets of Larache. "We need to study in-depth the situation with the possibility of increasing the penalties as part of a reform," said El Khalfi, the communications minister. "We cannot ignore this tragedy." Protesters gathered to try and get reform out of the African government in hope that a tragedy like this one will never have to happen again.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/17/world/africa/morocco-child-rape/index.html

Poor Justice System

Today there are approximately 2.2 million people in prisons across the US. While many of these people are criminals such as sex offenders, murderers, and thieves, many are just suffering a problem in their life. Military veterans suffering from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), the mentally challenged, and those in poverty are just a few examples of the type of person locked away. Not only are people being arrested for unjust reasons, but they are frequently over-punished. An example is a petty thief going to prison for the rest of his life for stealing golf clubs. In addition to THAT, we find that 1/9 of people sentenced to death are innocent. Our prisons and justice system is run poorly, and it should not be ignored.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/11/opinion/stevenson-justice-prison/index.html?hpt=ju_c2

God Particle: Getting Closer

Physicists in Batavia Illinois are working on two separate experiments with their Tevetron accelerator in hopes of pinning down the elusive God Particle, or the Higgs boson. Physicists in the US have mentioned that the Higgs boson is a fundamental particle in the structure and creation of the universe, and that the so called “god particle” is presumed responsible for giving all matter its mass. Scientists compared results from their Tevatron accelerator to that of the Large Hadron Collider’s data and found consistencies. Despite this progress, a representative of the Illinois institution regretfully said that they had “used up all their good ideas” and “Only have hard ideas left”. Even though the data has stopped flowing for now, they estimate they can increase that accuracy of the Higgs analysis from 10-20%.

Link: http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/07/scientists-getting-clearer-picture-of-god-particle/?hpt=hp_t2

First Steps In N. Korea - US Relations

North Korea agreed to cease nuclear weapons production in exchange for energy assistance and 240,000 tons of food assistance. In addition, Kim Jong Un agreed to let international inspectors into their nuclear facilities, something they haven’t allowed for close to five years. Hillary Clinton admits that this is a “step in the right direction”, but the US remains cautious due to nearly 20 broken agreements in past US-N. Korean negotiations. Last week, Korea gave up asking for food more suited for a banquet in honor of Kim Jong Il, and agreed for nutritional items that would better support children, pregnant women, and the Elderly. The US does not want to put too much publicity around this “first step”, as the Obama Administration remains weary that it might not go through.

Link: http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/01/u-s-cautiously-optimistic-after-food-aid-deal-with-north-korea/?hpt=wo_c2