Clinton Challenges Congo to Stop Sexual Violence

(NEWSER) - Hundreds of thousands of women have been sexually assaulted in the ongoing war in eastern Congo, but suddenly, the region is seeing a sharp increase in rapes of men. More than 10% of the victims of sexual violence in the region are male, and victims are often ostracized by their own families and communities. "The people in my village say: ‘You’re no longer a man,'" one victim tells the New York Times. "'Those men in the bush made you their wife.'" More»

Cell phone images harden opposition to military junta

(NEWSER) - In the west African nation of Guinea, where a military junta seized power in 2008, 50,000 people attended a political demonstration in a stadium last week, where they were attacked by soldiers who shot and killed at least 157 unarmed people, according to human rights groups, and raped at least three women in broad daylight. Cell phone images of the brutal attacks on women have circulated throughout Guinea, fueling opposition to the coup. A New York Times reporter in Guinea calls the images "ugly and hard to refute." More»

(NEWSER) - Hillary Clinton ended her African tour today on a note of optimism colored by disdain, the New York Times reports. The secretary of state visited seven nations over 11 days and made her final remarks on the Cape Verde islands off the coast. “I leave Africa after this remarkable trip even more committed,” Clinton said. She commented on the “joy and energy Africans have,” as well as on having “seen the worst humanity can do to itself.” More»

She's still trivialized as she fights to empower women

(NEWSER) - Hillary Clinton’s trip to Congo was meant to help fulfill a promise to focus on women’s issues, but it seems to have turned on one woman's issues. Though “there could have been no more dramatic setting,” writes Judith Warner in the New York Times, “back home, all anyone could talk about was Bill.” The secretary of State faces a “tide of trivialization” as she fights for women and we chatter about her “marriage, her temperament, even her hair.” More»

(NEWSER) - A visibly annoyed Hillary Clinton bristled today when—as she heard it—a Congolese university student asked what her husband thought about an international financial matter, the AP reports. "My husband is not secretary of state, I am," she snapped. "If you want my opinion, I will tell you my opinion. I am not going to be channeling my husband." More»