Study: TV’s female characters are sexual targets

Teenage female characters are sexual fodder for broadcast network TV series, especially comedies, according to a conservative US advocacy group’s new study. An examination of 238 sitcoms and dramas airing in the United States during four weeks in 2011 and 2012 found a third of the episodes included content that “rose to the level of sexual exploitation” of females, according to the Parents Television Council report

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Animal Cruelty: New Undercover Video Links Major Retailers to Barbaric Handling of Pigs

Earlier this year, the National Pork Board introduced its new slogan: “Be inspired.” It isn’t nearly as catchy as “the other white meat,” an earlier campaign that touted the health benefits of pork, but it did evoke something even higher and nobler. But nobility hardly describes the public image of the industry this week, and if consumers are inspired to do anything at all, it would be to stop eating pork entirely.

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A Pakistani Journalist Vanishes: Is the I.S.I. Involved?

Fears are growing for the safety of a well-known Pakistani journalist who has been missing for 39 hours now and, according to an international advocacy group, is believed to be in the custody of the Pakistan’s controversial Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence . Human Rights Watch declared that Saleem Shahzad, a reporter working for the Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online and Adnkronos International, the Italian news agency, could be subject to mistreatment and even torture while in custody.

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Detained immigrant children face legal maze in U.S.

When “Marta” was 12, she entered the United States illegally, hoping to join her mother, who had left her in Central America years ago to search for work. Three years later she was sitting in immigration detention by herself waiting to be deported back home to her grandmother, who was dying of cancer

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Teen offenders find a future in Missouri

Getting arrested for stealing cars after his 16th birthday may be the best thing that ever happened to Terrence Barkley. It got him out of gangs and headed to college. While in one of Missouri’s juvenile facilities, Barkley became editor of its student newspaper, captain of the football team and made the honor roll.

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