Weird news - Too many calls caused dismissal of rape charges

Rape is a heinous crime, and is also one of the most reported (and as many probably unreported) crimes. Trying it legally and prosecuting can be difficult, with little evidence available in many cases. There may not be witnesses, and in the past, the word of the lady was given high value with the presumption that a lady would not lie about something that would affect her so much, which might affect her reputation and so on. At the same time, there are also the black sheep, and it is also true that there would be cases where the accused was almost asked to prove his own innocence, with the charge against him being in the open, and could be false in order for some kind of revenge. In recent times, courts have also become more careful, not automatically taking the version of the lady, but trying to view all the circumstances and then evaluating whether the case did indeed hold water (link to article):

The Delhi High Court has upheld the acquittal of a man by a trial court in a rape case, saying the woman's testimony was "untrustworthy", full on contradictions and she had called him 529 times between the date of alleged rape and the filing of the complaint. A bench of Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal said it was in agreement with the trial court's view that the woman's testimony was "highly unreliable", "untrustworthy" and "inspires no confidence", while dismissing her appeal against the man's acquittal. The trial court had acquitted the man on January 5. The high court noted in its judgement that there were several contradictions in the woman's statement regarding how she met the man, how the alleged incident took place and why there was delay in reporting. The other inconsistencies in her allegation the court noted were that even after getting her phone back from the man, who had allegedly taken it, she did not call the police for over 30 days and in-between called him 529 times.

Weird news - Jailed after reporting rape

Sometimes the clash of civilizations and differences in laws between countries can lead to weird situations and seemingly very wrong treatment. For the western world and all concepts of being civilized, a lady stating that she was raped would lead to a police investigation to find the rapist, to give her medical help and the counseling to enable her to overcome the trauma, and sometimes that trauma can take time to get over. It is not expected that she would be blamed for what happened, and it would not be expected that she would have to suffer a jail term.
And this is where what happens in the Islamic world can literally jar the western and 'civilized' world. Pakistan had many years implemented a stricter interpretation of laws through the Hudood laws, which mandated that a woman had to provide 4 witnesses for a rape allegation, else she could be prosecuted for adultery (link to Wiki).
Yet another instance of a case has come about in Qatar. A Dutch woman had gone to a bar where she was apparently drugged and found herself in a strange place, and realized that she been raped. Upon making the charge, she found that she was herself in the dock, along with the rapist. She was charged with illegal sex, and also for being drunk (so this makes it weird, she was raped and yet charged with an illegal sex act). (link to article):

At a court hearing in Doha Monday, the 22-year old, whom CNN has identified only as Laura, was handed a one-year suspended sentence and placed on probation for three years for the sex-related charge, and fined 3,000 Qatari Riyals ($823) for being drunk outside a licensed location. She'll almost certainly be deported immediately. A Syrian man also appeared alongside her and was found guilty of the same crimes. He was sentenced to 100 lashes for the illicit fornication charge and a further 40 lashes for the illegal consumption of alcohol. As a Muslim he is not allowed to drink at all under Qatari law. No mention was made of the rape accusation during proceedings. Neither defendant was present in court, in what was the third hearing in the case.

Weird news - Woman kills and buries a man for attempting rape

Things get tricky when you have a case of self-defence; whether that be against attack (and this attack can be in the nature of a deadly attack, or an attack such as rape). However, whether the self-defense can lead to the death of the attacker and the subsequent legal proceedings depends on the actions of the defendants. In many cases, self-defense can lead to the acquittal of the defendants or reduced sentences, but it gets tricky when the self-defense leads to further actions designed to hide the act, or mislead the law enforcement agents.
Such acts can be get converted into criminal acts such as in this case, where a woman was apparently attacked and she fought back and inflicted deadly harm on the attacker. At this point, she would most likely have got away with either an acquittal or reduced sentences, but after this, she went ahead and hid the body and did not inform the police about what has happened - which would most probably lead to charges against her for these acts. One can sympathize with her for the self-defense, but the law does not allow her to not inform the law enforcement agencies about what has happened (link to article):

Rita told the police she hacked Krishna with an axe after he tried to rape her and her daughter in their house on April 4. “After he fell on his back, I chopped off his private parts as I thought he might survive the attack and retaliate,” she said. Krishna, however, did not survive the blows. Rita called seven women, her friends, and they buried the body in the crematorium.

Weird news: Man sentenced to centuries for multiple rapes

Rape is treated as a very serious crime, being treated as a heinous crime, and because of the horrific effect it has on the woman (in terms of actual physical injuries as well as the effect on the psyche of the woman). Sentences for this crime can vary, but a sentence of 10 years to life is typical in a number of countries (and in some Islamic countries, it is possible that execution may result in case of conviction).
However, inspite of the heavy sentencing due to this crime, it is also seen as a method of punishment for the woman, as well as a way of subduing the lady in question. And in many cases, it is weird where people have been convicted for multiple such crimes, as if the criminal had got used to the idea of doing this crime and then getting a high, which led to doing this crime again. But, what do you when a person is convicted for a large number of such crimes. The sentencing for rape does not lead to a sentence of death in many countries, so when a person is convicted for many rapes, what can the judicial system do ? You can maximum hold the person in jail for their entire lifetime (and for such a person, their mental make-up may be such that it is not safe that they be let outside).
However, when you sentence a person for many centuries, with each punishment being added, then it also becomes a farce to some degree. For example, when this person was convicted for 30 counts of rape, and sentenced to 1535 years, it is weird. (link to article):

A 35-year-old serial rapist has been jailed for 1,535 years by a South African in Johannesburg for sexually assaulting as many as 29 women over a period of five years, media reports said on Friday. Albert Morake's reign of terror in the Tembisa area of Gauteng province began in 2007 and ended with his arrest in 2012. He was sentenced by the Johannesburg high court on Thursday to 1,535 years of imprisonment including 30 life terms for 30 counts of rape, 360 years for robbery and several hundred more for crimes including attempted murder, kidnapping and robbery.

Weird news - Girl cuts off father's head after he rapes her

Rape is such a brutal crime that it leaves women horrified, shakes up their emotions and their sense of security. Women can suffer severe emotional trauma over such a crime, and these feelings can be even more intense depending on other factors surrounding the crime, such as the violence of the crime, and whether the crime was committed by somebody known to the victim. And this is troublesome. In the family environment, there is a lot of trust involved, and for somebody to violate that trust and do such a crime would be very traumatic indeed.
When such a crime happened in the island of Papua New Guinea, the horror of the crime was increased due to the person who was doing such a crime; the rape was committed by the father on his daughter, which was a violation in many respects. The father is the one who is supposed to be a guardian to the children, the one who puts in a lot of effort to ensure the well being and growth of the children, and for a father to commit such a crime would be horrible indeed. In this case, after raping his daughter in the night, when he tried to do it again in the morning, she took a knife and cut his head off. The community has justified the death (link to article):

A teenage girl beheaded her father with a bush knife after he raped her at their home in Papua New Guinea, a report said Monday, with community leaders protecting her, saying the man deserved to die. The Post-Courier newspaper said the 18-year-old chopped her father’s head clean off after he repeatedly raped her last Tuesday night in their village in the poverty-stricken Pacific nation’s Western Highlands. The report cited a pastor as saying the father, in his mid-40s, had three other children and raped his daughter when they were alone in the house after the mother and the other siblings visited relatives. Pastor Lucas Kumi said the man went to his daughter’s room in the night and raped her repeatedly. “The father wanted to rape his daughter again in the morning inside the house and that was when the young girl picked up the bush knife and chopped her father’s head off,” he said.

Weird news - Malaysian man sells his girl-friends virginity without her knowledge

This sounds more than weird. When one reads such a news, one wonders how a person could do such a thing. A relationship between a young girl and boy requires a lot of trust between them, and the action taken by the boy broke all sorts of trust. Imagine inviting the girl-friend to spend the night at your home, and then move away from there, and send somebody else in to rape your girl-friend. And this happened due to the fact that the boy-friend had sold his girl-friend's chastity to another 19 year old man (link to article).

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian teenager reportedly sold the chastity of his fiancee to another man to settle his gambling debts. The girl had reportedly gone to spend the night at the house at the invitation of her fiance. However, the man later left the house on the pretext of meeting someone.
Not long after that, another 19-year-old youth entered the house from the back door and entered the room where the girl was. He ordered her to lock the door and then raped her. It has been reported that throughout her ordeal, the victim repeatedly cried for help but her fiance's grandmother, said to be in her 60s, was helpless because the room was locked from the inside.

This was something really shocking, and one would hope that both these youth get the appropriate punishment for this actions of theirs.

Very young mothers - even at the age of 5 and 9

Society gets horrified when you see kids the age of 15 or 16 having children, since it is believed that children are not mature enough to handle the responsibility of having children, and, they deserve the chance to enjoy their own life to some degree before they take on the task of becoming parents. As a result, most societies have made it a crime for girls below the age of 16 or 18 to have children, and can result in a sentence of rape. What happens in these cases (link to article) ?

BEIJING: A nine-year-old girl has given birth to a healthy child in northeast China, making it possibly the first case of childbirth at such a Another report from Shanghai based hospital said 30% of young girls who had surgical abortions were school students. The hospital run by the People’s Liberation Army revealed that 50% of them were in vocational schools and the rest studied in colleges. The hospital reported that most cases of pregnancy took place immediately after school and college vacations. At least one-third of the cases were in the secondary or advanced stages of pregnancy by the time the girls came to the hospital, it said.

And Wikipedia (link) has a whole listing of such girls.
1939: Lina Medina of Paurange, Peru gave birth to a 2.7 kg (6.0 lb) son, named Gerardo, by caesarean section on May 14, 1939 in Lima at the age of 5 years, 7 months, and 21 days. Her parents, who assumed their daughter had a tumor, took her to a hospital, where she was determined to be seven months pregnant. Although Medina's father was arrested on suspicion of child sexual abuse, he was later released due to lack of evidence, and the identity of who impregnated Medina was never uncovered.
2006: A girl from Huanuco, Peru, gave birth to a baby weighing 2 kg (4.4 lb) by caesarean section at a hospital in Lima in December 2006. Her ninth birthday occurred a couple of days later. She became pregnant after being raped by two of her cousins.

Setting up a pro-rape group on Facebook

Rape is one of the instruments related to subjugation of women, and is viewed by society as an abomination. Rape is supposed to be such an insult to a woman that in most countries, the name of the rape victim is not reported, and the perpetrator is sentenced to long terms in prison. In such a situation, one would expect educated (and from premiere institutions) young men to be very careful, and yet you have a case where these young men created a pro-rape and anti-consent group on Facebook and it was only when it got controversial that this group was closed (link):

Members of an elite Australian college linked to Sydney University provoked outrage on Tuesday after it was revealed they had set up a “pro-rape” group on social networking site Facebook. The page, set up by mostly past and present students at the all-male residential college St Paul’s, called itself “Define Statutory” and described itself as “pro-rape, anti-consent”, local media reports said. It has since been taken down.
Sydney University vice-chancellor Michael Spence said he was “appalled by the reported behaviour and apparent attitudes of some students”. “There can be no excuses for sexual assault,” he said in a statement. “The university and the residential colleges have been working hard to bring about a change in attitudes and behaviour. Obviously we still have much to do.”

Girl found 18 years after kidnapping

This is truly weird news. In the past 2-3 years, the world has found many cases of girls getting kidnapped and help for years altogether. They are exploited sexually, in many cases bearing multiple children while being held prisoner, and worst of all, in some cases, the person who has done this to them is none other than a relative (a father in some cases).
In yet another case, a family suddenly one day lost their 11 year bright bubbly daughter in 1991 (can you even remember that year). For a parent to lose a daughter like this, and not know what happened, whether their daughter is alive or has been killed by some monster, it must have been an emotional trauma. And then one day to suddenly discover that their daughter had been kept in confinement for 18 years, been exploited sexually, and forced to have 2 children (link to article):

A woman who was snatched as an 11-year-old from a bus stop was reunited on Thursday with her family after spending 18 years as the captive of a convicted rapist who fathered her two children, police said.
"None of the children have ever been to school. They've never been to a doctor," a police representative told a press conference. "They were kept in complete isolation in this compound, if you will."

It is horrible, one cannot believe the trauma that this girl would have gone through.

Man gambles wife, loses her to friends ..

It was a different time and age when there used to be a belief that women were the properties of men, and could be done as they wished. Similarly, it was a concept of the medieval ages of some societies that a wife was the property of the man, and was like any other item in the house to be done with as wished (although sadly, many Islamic cultures (and the Taliban) believe this to be true, and their behavior to women in their control is that of an owner). Consider the case of a man who staked his wife in a gambling game, and then lost her to his friends. When the friends won, they exercised their ownership rights by keeping her in custody and raping her for a week (link to article):

A man allegedly staked his wife in gambling after he lost his money and possessions to his friends in Baran district of Rajasthan. The 25-year-old woman told the police on Friday that she was repeatedly raped by her husband's friends who kept her hostage for a week.
"She said that on March 25, Ojha was playing cards with his friends. He lost all his money but continued playing and when his friends refused to lend him any money he staked her and lost,'' said the in-charge of Bapcha police station, Ramkishan Meena.
On March 26, Parasram and the two others allegedly kidnapped her from the house and took her to a nearby forested area where they gagged her, tied her hands and raped her.

A sad scene, what can you do when a person who is a partner in marriage does this to you ? Now it is a police case, and all involved are likely to pay for their actions.

Romania allows 11 year old girl to have an abortion

Imagine the moral dilemma. An 11 year old girl, one who is so young and expected to lead a life where school, friends and games are the main ingredients of life, is struggling with the concept of bearing a life - being pregnant due to being raped by somebody known to her - her 19 year old uncle who is now on the run. Romania is a country that does not allow abortion after 14 weeks, but what do you in such a case where the girl is 21 weeks pregnant, but does not even know. Allowing the victim to give birth will essentially ruin her life, changing her life totally (and as can be seen, she was already being seen as different from her friends who were avoiding her), further, for an 11 year old, carrying a pregnancy to full term can be dangerous. Thankfully the Government relented:

BUCHAREST: The Romanian government has allowed an 11-year-old pregnant girl to undergo an abortion on exceptional grounds. The country had been divided in its opinion on the case of the 11-year-old who been raped by her uncle. On Thursday, 20 anti-abortion Orthodox groups had called for her to continue with her pregnancy offering to raise the child.
The girl is 21 weeks pregnant, more than the 14-week limit allowed by Romanian law. Abortions can be carried out later than 14 weeks in Romania, but only to save the life of the mother.

Thankfully, better sense prevailed, and the girl was allowed to terminate her pregnancy, no doubt offensive to pro-lifers, but something that should have been done.

Father forced daughter to have 7 incestuous children

In a news that is shaking people to the core, it was revealed that a man in Austria, a father had a forced incestuous relationship with his daughter for a period of 24 years and had 7 children with her. This man, 73-year-old Josef Fritzl in the city of AMSTETTEN, Austria had built up a whole underground cellar system in his house in which he had forced his daughter into when she was 18 years old, and then kept her there for 24 years; during this period they had 7 children out of which 1 died, 3 of them the man adopted along with his wife (who lived with him in the same house but who did not know about this under-ground cellars), and the other 3 had never seen the light of day:

Three children freed from a cellar in which their mother had been imprisoned and raped by her own father for 24 years had never seen daylight, police in Austria have confirmed. The main question reverberating from the small Austrian town: How could a man keep his daughter locked in his basement for 24 years, where she gave birth to seven of his children while her mother and three of those children lived upstairs without an inkling of the horrors in the cellar?
Fritzl explained Elisabeth's disappearance by saying she had run away from home, a story backed up by letters he forced Elisabeth to write, including one that begged her parents not to look for her. Other letters made it seem the missing daughter had left the three children on the parents' doorstep -- when in fact they had been born in captivity in the family's basement.

This is horrific news; one wonders as to the depravity of the human soul that can do things like this - doing this with a stranger is bad enough, but doing this with your own daughter is like a scene out of hell.