A video of a 17-year-old girl being gang raped spread by cell phones through South Africa on Wednesday, shocking a nation battling an epidemic of violence against women.

The girl was reported missing in late March and was apparently raped last week in the Johannesburg township of Soweto, police said.

Reporters from the tabloid Daily Sun brought the video to the attention of police, who found the girl on Wednesday and began arresting suspects.

“She was found with another man in his house,” Warrant Officer Kay Makhubele told the Sapa news agency.

“Obviously she is traumatised and we are going to take her to the doctor now,” he said.

The girl has the mental capacity of a four-year-old, according to the Eyewitness News website.

Watching the video is a crime under South Africa’s child pornography law.

The Star newspaper reported online that the video lasts 10 minutes and 33 seconds, showing her being raped by seven different males, as she screams: “You are forcing me, you are forcing me.”

The video’s spread has forced South Africa to confront its staggering incidence of rape. More than 56,000 cases were reported to police last year.

But the crime is often under-reported, like the case of the 17-year-old. A 2009 study by the government’s Medical Research Council revealed that only one in 25 rapes were reported to the police.

The same survey found more than one quarter of South African men admitted to raping a woman or girl.

Gang rape video goes viral, shocking South Africa – Yahoo! News

Complete with red skirts, tunics, armour, swords and feathered helmets, the protesting centurions clashed with police in front of the city’s tourist attraction, the Colosseum, built in the times of Ancient Rome.

The policemen arrived at the ancient amphitheatre to enforce an eviction notice to the men, who normally ask tourists for money in exchange for a photograph with them.

Italy’s culture ministry said the men had no permits and often harassed and stalked tourists in addition for asking for exorbitant amounts of money.

Clashes with police broke out when city police arrived to remove two centurions who had occupied part of an arcade.

Some 25 centurions tried to stop the police, but during the scuffles, one of the protesters fell to his feet and was slightly injured.

Some onlookers joined in the protest in support of the centurions, saying: “Leave them alone. We are all centurions”.

Video: Angry Roman centurions besiege Colosseum – Telegraph

Christians were nailed to crosses in the Philippines today in a grim Good Friday reenactment of Jesus’s suffering.

Thousands of people watched as 17 devoted Catholics were crucified in the gruesome annual ritual.

Church leaders have condemned the practice which they believe are a distortion of the true Easter message.

Nine men were crucified in Pampanga provinces San Pedro Cutud village today, while at least eight others were crucified in neighbouring villages.

The annual event – which dates back to the 1950s – drew an estimated crowd of 10,000 worshippers.

Christians NAILED to crosses in gruesome Good Friday re-enactment of Jesuss death in the Philippines | Mail Online

The 160-page book, published by Idara Impex in New Delhi, India, is written by Hazrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, who’s described in the book’s foreword as a “prolific writer on almost every topic of Islamic learning.”

The store’s manager, who didn’t give his name, said the book had been sold out for some time, and the store’s owner, whom the manager identified as Shamim Ahmad, refused to comment for the story.

It wasn’t clear whether the shop has ordered more copies of the book, but it’s available at online Islamic bookstores and even through eBay.

In the book’s opening pages, it is written that “it might be necessary to restrain her with strength or even to threaten her.”

Later, its author advises that “the husband should treat the wife with kindness and love, even if she tends to be stupid and slow sometimes.”

Page 45 contains the rights of the husband, which include his wife’s inability to leave “his house without his permission,” and that his wife must “fulfil his desires” and “not allow herself to be untidy … but should beautify herself for him … ”

In terms of physical punishment, the book advises that a husband may scold her, “beat by hand or stick,” withhold money from her or “pull her by the ears,” but should “refrain from beating her excessively.”

Moderate Muslim voice Tarek Fatah says the shopkeeper should be charged for selling such a book.

“I wouldn’t say it’s hate, but it is inciting men to hit women,” said Fatah, who identified the book’s author as a prominent Islamic scholar. “This is new to you, but the Muslim community knows that this is widespread, that a woman can be beaten. Muslim leaders will deny this, but… ”

Book tells Muslim men how to beat and control their wives | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun

A large number of young British Asians support the use of physical violence against women who ‘dishonor’ their families, a poll conducted for the BBC has revealed.

About one in five – or 18 percent of the 500 young Asians between the ages of 16 and 34 questioned in the survey – said behaviors that could affect the honor of a woman’s family should be rewarded with physical violence.

These behaviors include disobeying a father, rejecting a prearranged marriage, or marrying someone unacceptable by the family.

According to the poll, 69 percent of respondents also agreed that families should live according to ‘honor.’ The figure includes 75 percent among men and 63 percent among women.

Nearly a fifth of young British Asians support honor-based violence: report

At least 943 Pakistani women and girls were murdered last year for allegedly defaming their family’s honor, the country’s leading human rights group said Thursday.

The statistics highlight the growing scale of violence suffered by many women in conservative Muslim Pakistan, where they are frequently treated as second-class citizens and there is no law against domestic violence.

Despite progress on better protecting women’s rights, activists say the government needs to do more to prosecute murderers in cases largely dismissed by police as private, family affairs.

“At least 943 women were killed in the name of honor, of which 93 were minors,” wrote the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in its annual report.

Seven Christian and two Hindu women were among the victims, it said.

The Commission reported 791 “honor killings” in 2010.

Around 595 of the women killed in 2011 were accused of having “illicit relations” and 219 of marrying without permission.

Some victims were raped or gang raped before being killed, the Commission said. Most of the women were killed by their brothers and husbands.

Only 20 of 943 killed were reported to have been provided medical aid before they died, the Commission wrote.

Nearly 1,000 Pakistani women ‘killed for honor’

After years of battling false claims and viral emails alleging that he is a Muslim, President Obama hasn’t gotten far among Republican voters in Alabama and Mississippi – about half still believe he is Muslim and about 1 in 4 believes his parents’ interracial marriage should have been illegal, a new poll shows.

The automated survey by Public Policy Polling, conducted over the weekend in advance of Tuesday’s GOP primaries in both states, showed Republicans Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich locked in a three-way battle for votes.

But in an indication of where the two states fall on the political spectrum, the polls also found continued skepticism among Republicans about Obama’s religion and that a substantial number of GOP voters continue to believe interracial marriage should be illegal.

The poll of Mississippi Republicans found that 52% said they believed Obama is a Muslim, 36% weren’t sure and only 12% said they believed he is a Christian. He fared slightly better in Alabama, where 45% said he is a Muslim, 41% weren’t sure, and 14% said he is a Christian.

Poll: Obama is a Muslim to many GOP voters in Alabama, Mississippi – latimes.com

At least 90 Iraqi teenagers with “emo” appearances have been stoned to death by religious extremists in Baghdad in the past month after an inflammatory interior ministry statement dubbed it “devil worshiping”, activists said.Iraqs Moral Police released a chilling statement on the interior ministrys website condemning the “emo phenomenon” among Iraqi youth, disturbingly declaring its intent to “eliminate” the trend.

“The Emo phenomenon or devil worshiping is being followed by the Moral Police who have the approval to eliminate [the phenomenon] as soon as possible since its detrimentally affecting the society and becoming a danger,” the statement read.

“They wear strange, tight clothes that have pictures on them such as skulls and use stationary that are shaped as skulls. They also wear rings on their noses and tongues, and do other strange activities,” it continued.Religious extremists caught onto the interior ministry statement, and have been harassing and killing teenagers with “strange” or “emo” appearances.A group of armed men dressed in civilian clothing led dozens of teenagers to secluded areas a few days ago, stoned them to death, and then disposed their bodies in garbage dumpsters across the capital, according to activists.The armed men are said to belong to “one of the most extremist religious groups” in Iraq.

“First they throw concrete blocks at the boys arms, then at his legs, then the final blow is to his head, and if he is not dead then, they start all over again,” one person who managed to escape told Al-Akhbar.Iraqs moral police was granted approval by the Ministry of Education to enter Baghdad schools and pinpoint students with such appearances, according to the interior ministrys statement.

Iraqi teenagers stoned to death for “emo” haircuts

It’s a disturbing online sight, repeated hundreds if not thousands of times: girls, young teens or even younger, posting videos of themselves on YouTube asking the public to tell them if they are pretty.

For a 12- or 13-year-old, image is everything.  Many students at Haddonfield Middle School said they had seen these videos and found them troubling.

“Well, I feel really bad for the girls, that they have gotten to the point where they have to post videos,” said seventh grader Annie Gosse.  “They’ve probably been bullied at school about it.  And I feel like it’s really sad that they’ve gotten to that point, and they should get help before they do that.”

Fellow student Megan Becerril said if one of her friends posted such a video, she would try to be supportive:

“I would tell her that she is beautiful, because everyone is beautiful in their own way.”

“I think it’s a tough age for self-esteem,” notes school counselor Danielle McKelvey.  “It’s so important for kids of this age to know what everyone else is thinking.  And what we want to do is try to build them up so they feel good about themselves and not open it up to something that could be so seemingly negative.”

Concern Grows For Young Girls Posting ‘Am I Pretty?’ Videos Online « CBS Philly

A survey conducted by Living Social and Mandala Research released Friday indicated that Americans are the world’s worst tourist. And don’t blame someone else for the name calling: 4,000 out of 5,600 respondents were Americans themselves.

Americans, Canadians and Australians all gave U.S. tourists the worst ranking on the survey, while Irish respondents indicated their British neighbors were the worst, and the British called out the Germans for bad travel behavior, according to a Living Social news release .

Other survey findings included:

• Thirty-nine percent of U.S. travelers admitted to having helped themselves to items from hotels. The most pilfered loot, according to the survey, includes: Towels (28 percent), bathrobes (8 percent), batteries (5 percent), pillows (4 percent), remote controls (3 percent), sheets (3 percent), bibles (3 percent) and umbrellas (3 percent).

• American’s took far fewer vacation days than travelers of other nationalities. On average, Americans took 16 days off; Australians took 27 days off; Canadians took 21 vacation days; the Irish took 28 vacation days; and the British took 23 vacation days.

Thankfully, the survey did include some good news about Americans: we’re a lot worldlier than one might believe. Results indicated that 78 percent of Americans have visited at least one foreign country; 61 percent have visited multiple countries; and 36 percent have traveled to four or more foreign destinations.

Survey Finds Americans are World’s Worst Tourists