Two men from Argentina have become the first same-sex couple to marry legally in Latin America. They were married in Tierra del Fuego province. Gay marriage is illegal in Argentina, but the governor of Tierra del Fuego, Fabiana Rios, issued a special decree allowing them to marry there. Argentina's civil code bans gay marriage, but there is no mention in the constitution. The governor took advantage of this gray area and granted them a special decree. She said in a statement that gay marriage is "an important advance in human rights and social inclusion." Previously, a judge in Buenos Aires prevented the couple from marrying earlier this month. The Supreme Court of Argentina is expected to rule on same-sex marriage next year. (Full Story)
A shopping center in China's Hebei province has built a parking lot for women only. This parking lot is especially designed for women and includes wider spaces (one meter wider than normal spaces). In addition, female parking attendants have been trained to help guide female drivers into their parking spaces. And on top of that, the parking lot is painted in pink and light purple to "appeal to female tastes." An official said the new parking lot was created to cater to women's "strong sense of color and different sense of distance." Wow, how insulting and sexist. Way to go! (Full Story)
P.S. The official that provided the quote is named Wang Zheng, and I could have said "He sure is a wang!" But I'm too mature for that...
The British Foreign Office Minister said China "failed in its basic human rights responsibilities" (well, that's a completely new and unique charge). Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "appalled" at the execution. Chinese officials say that there had been no previous medical record of the man having bipolar disorder, and China's Supreme People's Court was not provided with any documentation of the man's mental illness. Gordon Brown said in a statement, "I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms...I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken." I agree. If China is convicting and sentencing the man, it is their responsibility to determine his mental state. It's not like the prisoner has to come to the trial with prior documentation -- and if there was no previous documentation, then he's not really mentally ill. Plenty of mentally ill people are not diagnosed as such -- simply because they never get evaluated. China needed to take the initiative on this to give this man a fair trial. If his mental health was brought up as an issue, he should have been evaluated.
A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry told a press briefing in Beijing that no one had the right to comment on China's judicial sovereignty (uh, yes they do; people do have the right to comment...). She continued, "We express our strong dissatisfaction and opposition to the British government's unreasonable criticism of the case. We urge [them] to correct their mistake in order to avoid harming China-UK relations." Let me get this straight...China executes a British citizen, the British government had made 27 representations to China in two years to get them to consider the man's mental illness and spare him from being executed, China ignores it, doesn't take the man's mental health seriously and does not even evaluate him...and Britain is being unreasonable? And Britain is harming China-UK relations?! (Full Story)
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