Women Affairs

Cherry and Kay Kay walk into room Number Two of a Rangoon karaoke bar, where a man waits alone for them on a brown leather sofa. "Come on, girls. Sing, please," he says, as they flick the karaoke machine to a Burma folk song they hope he likes. The scene may not be uncommon in many parts of Asia, but was until recently rare here in isolated Burma, where economic desperation is increasingly pushing young women into a sex trade that hides behind the facade of karaoke bars and massage parlours. At the bars, known locally as KTVs for "karaoke television," young women in their late teens and early 20s entertain clients in private air-conditioned rooms furnished with sofas and karaoke equipment. Waiters enter only when customers order food and drinks, or if the women ring a bell to alert the management that a client is getting out of hand. Workers at KTVs say sex is not necessarily on offer, but they add that in the private rooms boundaries can be vague. "It's ha...

Changing attitudes about love and marriage in rich Asian countries such as Taiwan, Japan and South Korea are pushing many desperate bachelors to seek out brides in other, poorer nations around the region. Many Asian men, particularly those in rural areas, tend to seek traditional wives who will stay home, doing chores and raising children, says Mika Toyota, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore's Asia Research Institute, and other experts who study the region. An economic boom in recent decades means women have options their mothers didn't. Better educated, they can have careers - and opt to stay single until Prince Charming shows up, if he ever does. "Most Japanese women would prefer to live and work in the city," says Jeff Kingston, author of Japan's Quiet Transformation. "A guy out there in the boonies . has a tough job selling the wonders of being a farmer's wife." Instead, the men increasingly seek women from countries such a...

Life has not been easy for Lisa Ann Taylor since her guilty plea deal to several charges and her sentencing to seven years of probation. The former Penthouse pet who had been accused of running a brothel out of her million-dollar home has put the mansion up for sale. Lisa Ann Taylor has put the red-brick mansion, which sits in an exclusive suburban Atlanta subdivision, up for sale for $1.2 million. Taylor, who has also performed under the name Melissa Wolf, became known as the Mansion Madam after being arrested along with another woman last year on prostitution and drug charges. As part of a plea deal, Taylor was sentenced to seven years probation and fined $150,000. If the fine isn't paid before Oct. 10, Gwinnett County can seize her home. But Taylor said Tuesday that outcome is not likely. "It's a good thing I put all that money away all those years ago," Taylor told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Taylor said she owns several other properties, including a house i...

Chinese police have launched a nationwide online crackdown to delete pornographic pictures of several Hong Kong celebrities and pledged to close any Websites that published the raunchy photos. The step is the latest in authorities' bid to control the spread of the photos, which show Hong Kong actor and singer Edison Chen and several female stars naked in bed and in sexual poses. The scandal has created a media frenzy and heated discussions on BBS communities both in Hong Kong and on the mainland since late January. Some Internet users shared the 800-plus pictures by e-mail or posting them on other Websites. Police in Beijing warned that anyone found sending the pictures to friends, even for free, will be detained for a maximum of 15 days. Posting the photos online violates the Security Administration Punishment Law, the Legal Evening News reported yesterday. Those who have sent more than 200 nude pictures via email, chat rooms and BBS will be investigated under criminal law, the po...

Two Iranian sisters convicted of adultery face being stoned to death after the supreme court upheld the death sentences against them, the Etemad newspaper Monday quoted their lawyer as saying. The two were found guilty of adultery -- a capital crime in Islamic Iran -- after the husband of one sister presented video evidence showing them in the company of other men while he was away. "Branch 23 of the supreme court has confirmed the stoning sentence," said their lawyer, Jabbar Solati. The penal court of Tehran province had already sentenced the sisters identified only as Zohreh, 27, and Azar (no age given) to stoning, the daily said. Solati explained that the two sisters had initially been tried for "illegal relations" and received 99 lashes. However in a second trial they were convicted of "adultery." The pair admitted they were in the video presented by the husband but argued that there was no adultery as none of the footage showed them engaged in a sexua...

A mother in Tainan County, southern Taiwan, was found to have allegedly forced her three young daughters to serve as prostitutes for more than two years. The woman and five patrons were arrested and questioned by police just before Chinese New Year, local news media reported yesterday. The illegal operation was exposed after the eldest daughter, now aged 13, told her school teacher several days before Chinese New Year's Eve on Feb. 6. The student said that since October 2006, her mother had forced her and her two younger sisters to serve as prostitutes, with patrons mostly men aged over 60. At the time, the three sisters were aged 6, 7, and 10. Following initial investigations, police found that men paid NT$500 to NT$1,000 for each incidence, and some patrons asked to be served by the three sisters simultaneously. The police have already located 8 suspects involved in the cases, and have taken six into custody after interrogations, including the mother and five patrons. The Tainan ...

Deborah Kotz One in seven American couples grapples with infertility, often with no explainable medical cause. A new book, The Fertility Diet, may offer a low-tech, low-cost solution for some. It's based on research from the well-respected Harvard Nurses' Health Study suggesting that diet may play a role in women's efforts to conceive. The book identifies particular nutrients they should be getting, such as iron, or avoiding, such as trans fats, to improve their chances of getting pregnant. How much are the odds increased? The book doesn't say. That's because the 10-step plan was formulated from dietary habits collected from surveys—and not actually tested on infertile women. While no one knows whether this plan can truly help women get pregnant, it's based, for the most part, on good nutrition and smart health habits. Book coauthor Jorge Chavarro, an investigator on the Nurses' Health Study and research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, spoke w...