ABRACADABRA

16 million Chinese women married to gay men

Beijing: Sixteen million women in China are married to homosexual men, an expert claimed. Due to traditional family values in China, about 90 percent of homosexual men get married to women, said Zhang Bei-chuan, an HIV/AIDS expert at Qingdao University. “Their wives are struggling to cope and their plight should be recognized,” ‘China Daily’ quoted Zhang as saying. Twenty-nine-year-old Xiao Yao, a magazine editor in Xi’an, Shaanxi province divorced her gay husband in 2008. “Most gay men’s wives I’ve known are silently suffering at the hands of husbands who could never love them, and like me, some even got abused by husbands who were also under great pressure,” Xiao said. She now runs a website called “Homeland of gays’ wives”, which has 1,200 registered users and provides support and advice.

Pills for teens: Britain

Pilot programmes are being launched across Britain where teenaged girls – as young as 13 – are being given contraceptive pills by pharmacies without a doctor’s prescription or parental permission, report agencies from London.Health authorities have held pilot schemes which cut out doctors when providing the pill. They argue it s a good way to reduce teenage pregnancy.

In the Isle of Wight, 10 community pharmacies are providing the pill to any girl aged 13 or over, as part of a plan to cut the region’s high teenage pregnancy rate. Those under 16, however, must have an appointment with a specially trained nurse, who will ask if the girl has discussed the matter with her parents.

The health experts have recommended that such schemes should be rolled out across the country, and have got support from the government, the Telegraph reported.

The department of health said pharmacies should be able to supply contraceptive pills to girl under 16 if proper safeguards were in place.

Similar schemes have been launched in Manchester and Croydon.

'Teens-Do anything, but not babies': 21st Century United Kingdom.

Brilliant US desi student triggers a Harvard probe

Washington: A complaint from an Indian-American student who was near the top of his high school but was rejected by both Harvard and Princeton universities has triggered an investigation by the US Education Department, media reports.

The unnamed Indian American student in California complained that the two universities discriminate against Asian-American to undergraduate admissions, according to a ‘Bloomberg’ report.

According to the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights the complaint was received on August 22 and the allegations “accepted for investigation” on January 11.

The complaint alleges “discrimination against Asian-American on the basis of race/national origin with respect to the university’s admission process.”

A Harvard spokesman was cited as saying the institution does not discriminate. Asian-Americans make up 16 percent of Harvard undergraduates.

But ‘Bloomberg’ said there’s plenty of research to suggest that Asian-American applicants must bring higher test scores and GPAs than whites, Hispanics or Blacks to gain entry.

There are 14.7 million Americans of Asian descent only, plus 2.6 million who are multiracial including Asian, according to the 2010 US census.

Traffic cop & bird watching!

 Evangelina Paredes, Chicago, is suing police officer Chris Collins, Stickney (Illinois), alleging he violated her privacy by searching motor vehicle records for her address and then leaving her a handwritten note on her car windshield asking for a date.

Earlier, Collins had issued a $ 132 ticket to her for speeding. He said in the note that the least he could do was to buy her dinner for costing her so much money. It said: “It’s Chris…that ugly bald Stickney cop who gave you that ticket. I know this may seem crazy and you’re probably right, but truth is I have not stopped thinking about you since. I don’t expect a girl as attractive as you to… even go for a guy like me, but I’m taking a shot anyways.”

Over 100 paedophiles chemically castrated

Around 100 paedophiles have been chemically castrated under a British government programme.

According to the Daily Mail, the sex offenders volunteered to take the drugs designed to lower their libido in a pilot experiment at the prison in Whatton, Nottinghamshire.

A single course of the leuprorelin drug reduces testosterone levels to that of a pre-pubescent boy.

Chemical castration involves a man taking hormones which suppress the production of testosterone, leading to a decreased sex drive. Poland introduced mandatory chemical castration for sex offenders in 2009 and Russia recently introduced similar legislation.

It was introduced in South Korea in September last year. Germany and the Czech Republic, however, reportedly use voluntary surgical castration to treat sex offenders.