The House of Representatives let the Senate-approved bipartisan Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) expire at the end of the 112th congressional session without ever seeing a vote. This is the first time VAWA has not been reauthorized since it was first passed in 1994.

By Michael Martinez and Stephanie Gallman

(CNN) -- Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is to announce Wednesday plans to sue the NCAA over its sanctions against Penn State University, hit with an unprecedented fine in the wake of the child sex abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

Corbett did not detail Tuesday the nature of the planned federal lawsuit, but said he will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. ET in State College.

By Ernesto Londoño,

Hundreds of accounts for online games used by registered sex offenders have been shut down in the US.

More than 2,100 gaming accounts were closed as part of Operation: Game Over run by New York's attorney general.

It was able to target the accounts because registered sex offenders are required to surrender details of their online aliases.

Blizzard, Microsoft, Sony, NCSoft and many other game firms are backing the purge, aimed at protecting children.

NOTE: This article contains graphic content that may be triggering for some readers.

 

By Baruch Ben-Chorin

In 1970, when Waris Dirie was a 5-year-old in Somalia, her mother held her down on a rock. She gave her a piece of root from an old tree.

"Bite on this," she said. Her mother leaned over and whispered: "Try to be a good girl. Be brave for Mama, and it will go fast." Then, an old woman who was with them in the African bush cut off parts of her genitals with a broken razor blade.

By Adrian Jawort

Early on the morning of January 7, Sherry Arnold, a popular schoolteacher from Sidney, Montana (population 5,436) was jogging down a road when she was abducted. News of the incident shook the rural community. Sixty-year-old Helen Bighorn was in a supermarket when she first heard of Arnold’s disappearance. “I cried; I didn’t care where I was at,” she said. “I prayed for the family and prayed they’d find her, because I knew they’d need some kind of resolution.”

NOTE: This article contains disturbing content that may be triggering for some readers.

 

By NIHARIKA MANDHANA and ANJANI TRIVEDI

The police said the men were looking for some fun. They had been drinking, having a party, and decided to go on a joy ride. They began circling the capital in a private bus, the police said, when they spotted a couple looking for a ride home. They waved the man and woman onboard and charged them each 36 cents.

NOTE: This article contains graphic content that may be triggering for some readers.

By Vivian Yee

A tall, imposing rabbi with a black goatee who served as assistant principal and principal during his 27 years at Yeshiva University High School for Boys, George B. Finkelstein was the face of authority to Mordechai Twersky, who graduated in 1981.

By Linda Pressly

New measures are being implemented in the US to tackle rape and sexual assault in prison. But in Alabama, one women's prison has gained a notorious reputation for being unsafe.

Tutwiler prison stands next to US Highway 231, in the town of Wetumpka. Behind the barbed wire is a series of stone-coloured single-storey buildings.

This is Alabama's maximum security facility for women - a place where stories of rape and sexual assault are legion.

NOTE: This article contains graphic content that may be triggering for some readers.

A longtime Newport Beach judge who said that a rape victim “didn’t put up a fight” and that her sexual assault was only “technical” apologized for his remarks when confronted by a state agency.

Superior Court Judge Derek G. Johnson was publicly admonished by the Commission on Judicial Performance, which said the judge’s comments breached judicial ethics and created an impression of bias against the victim.

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