| DANGER LURKS IN TEEN DATING GAME
New York's teen dating scene is a harsh reality of abusive 11-year-olds, 15-year-old rapists, beatings with broomsticks, and girls forced into cocaine addiction at 16. City officials and parents were shocked and appalled last week by findings in the city Health Department's Teen Safety Report. The study gave a disturbing insight into New York's teenage dating violence, which has spiked by 40 percent since 1999. One out of 10 girls at New York high schools have been forced into sex, with reported rapes increasing by 34 percent. One in 10 New York teens have experienced physical violence at the hands of a partner, the study of 8,000 students from grades 9 to 12 found. "In public schools, the violence is way more up-front," said 17-year-old Alex Unger, a senior from an uptown school.
Why can’t the English be more like the French?
It is well known that Englishmen are no good at sex. They go at it in a medieval fashion, blind drunk, ignorant and with no respect for la séduction. To attract male attention, Englishwomen have to go out "on the pull" dressed like tarts. When the English do "score" (sporting vocabulary is de rigueur for sex), the rules are clear. In no way must the sex ever be discussed, although it might be conceded that last night was "a laugh". Altogether, it is a mystery how they ever procreate. Instead of a sex life, the British have their newspapers. What they really love is scandal: catching people out, punishing them for daring to have sex. This is completely in keeping with the puritan tradition. Picture the English couple in bed on Sunday morning.
Dragun's search for her roots
THIS is a copy of Charmaine Dragun's STM article on researching her Croatian roots. Armed with a map and a few tantalising clues, Channel 10 newsreader CHARMAINE DRAGUN went cruising the islands of Croatia in search of her family history. STM went along for the ride. Fierce lovers often declare "When you know, you just know". And for me, this was love at first sight. My breath caught as we stepped on to the tarmac and gazed out on Croatia for the first time. Accompanied by the other love of my life, photographer Simon Struthers, I headed off into the dusky landscape where mountains buried in clouds melt into the sea, and a blood orange sun lights the sky. It was a sumptuous sight and I heard myself asking: "So, why did my family leave here again?" Well, war, gloomy job prospects and communism provided a few compelling reasons.
Adding blessings
But mostly, the couple's lives revolve around caring for their kids. "People ask us 'How do you do it?,'" Carrie says. "Well, this is what we started out with as parents. To us, this is normal. We're just Mom and Dad and that's it. ... This is what we were meant to do." from China with love Early in their marriage, Rick Temple, a lawyer, and his wife, Sheila, discussed adopting "someday" after having their two biological sons. (Weston, now 21, is a student at Missouri State University, and Kyler, 18, is a senior at Kickapoo High School.) When the boys were 14 and 11, the couple contacted an international agency, intending to adopt a healthy infant or toddler from China. But while researching the process online, Sheila discovered a little girl whose heart defect had been surgically mended in China with help from a nonprofit U.S.
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