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Jerusalem child arrests break law: rights group

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Police in Jerusalem are systematically breaking the law by arresting stone-throwing children at night and interrogating them without their parents being present, an Israeli rights group said Monday.

B'Tselem said police were regularly violating Israeli law in their treatment of minors in the occupied east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan, where tensions between settlers and Palestinians run high.

Confrontations in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood often involve stone-throwing by young Palestinians, and B'Tselem said at least 81 minors had been arrested between November 2009 and October 2010, most accused of throwing stones.

"The Jerusalem Police systematically violates the law, primarily the Youth Law, which grants minors special rights in criminal matters and prohibits, as a rule, interrogation of minors at night," the group said.

The report accused police of "taking the minors from their beds and rushing them to interrogation... in most cases in order to obtain information on incidents that occurred a few days earlier."

It also said police interrogators illegally prevented parents from attending the questioning of their children, and said many minors complained of violent treatment during their arrests, but investigations were rare and never resulted in disciplinary action.

B'Tselem said it had documented the detention of at least four children younger than 12, the age of criminal responsibility in Israel, "meaning they are not subject to criminal proceedings."

In one case, an eight-year old was detained in the middle of the night "only because his name was identical to that of another child who was suspected of throwing stones," the group said.

B'Tselem called on police to immediately end such arrests and interrogations and instead "emphasise options for the rehabilitation of the minors and for preventing injury to them."

"The police conducted these arrests in a harmful manner, which reflects disregard of the rights and needs of the child suspects and may have serious consequences on their future development," the report said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld denied the B'Tselem allegations and said arrests were "carried out according to the law.

"The large majority of those suspects that were questioned and arrested admitted to being involved in violence," he told AFP.

Rosenfeld acknowledged parents were not always present during questioning their children, but said the interrogations were monitored over closed-circuit television and parents always escorted their children to the police station.

He said night arrests were made only when "operational intelligence" suggested the suspect would best be apprehended at night, and denied allegations police were violent during the arrest of minors.

Rosenfeld also blamed the local community for failing to provide their children with alternatives to stone-throwing.

"There is a huge gap in the responsibility that the parents as well as the leaders of the community are taking on themselves," he said.

"The leaders of those communities have to set up social activities in order to prevent those teenagers from being on the street and ending up with a criminal record."

In November, a group of 60 Israeli professionals who work with children expressed concern about the arrests of minors in Silwan in a letter sent to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The letter accused Israeli police of "flagrant violations" of the law over their arrests and interrogations of Palestinian children.

St. Francis (N.Y.) defeats St. Francis (Pa.) 57-44

NEW YORK – Akeem Bennett scored 22 points and St. Francis (N.Y.) pulled away from St. Francis (Pa.) in the second half for a 57-44 win on Thursday night in the Northeast Conference opener for both teams.

The Terriers (2-3), who have won both of their games at home, scored the first points of the contest with 2:43 elapsed. They shot 8 of 26 of the field while the Red Flash (2-5) shot 8 of 24 en route to a 24-21 Terriers lead at halftime.

The Red Flash tied the game at 26, then the Terriers used a 16-4 run to pull away for good.

The Terriers improved to 12-for-24 shooting in the second half, including 3 of 6 3-pointers while the Red Flash shot only 8-for-25 (32 percent) and were 0 of 7 from long range.

Ricky Cadell added 12 points for the Terriers and Stefan Perunicic added 10.

Umar Shannon had 15 points, Anthony Ervin had 14 and Mislav Jukic chipped in 10 for the Red Flash.

Feminists accuse Joe Scarborough of using sexist language

Ina scathing op-ed, Joe Scarborough told the GOP they needed to “man up”against Sarah Palin. Women advocates, however, have taken issue with the MSNBC host and former congressman’s comments, telling Morning Joe to “STF Up.”

Women advocates aren’t upset with Scarborough’s political rhetoric. It’s the male-centric language. They want so-called sexist language to stop, and in the name of equality, that means women’s use of that language, too.

, љScarboroughљcalled on Republicans to distance themselves publicly from Palin, a potential 2012 presidential candidate.“Enough,” wrote Scarborough. “It’s time for the GOP to man up.”

Later that day, author and Democratic activist Christine Pelosi, who is the daughter of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, began hercomments about the article with an admonition of Scarborough’s sexist language, not his political comments.

“‘Man up’ is a sexist term that should be retired along with all the other gender-based imperious imperatives,” wrote “љ“Candidates at all levels of service deserve better than ludicrous taunting that does little to advance civil discourse.”

Pelosi isn’t the only one who’s upset.

“I agree 100 percent with Christine Pelosi that this kind of language,however it gets used, it should be excised from political discourse inthe same way that language that might have been acceptable in previousgenerations towards individuals who are African American has beensuccessfully excised from public discourse,” Siobhan “Sam”Bennett, CEO and president of the Women’s Campaign Forum, told The Daily Caller.

TheWCF advocates for female candidates in all levels of government and has lobbied publicly to .љWhile it’s liberal in its activism, Bennett stressed the need to endsexist language on all fronts.

But what if it’s other women using the allegedly sexist remarks?

Femalecandidates — particularly Republican female candidates in the 2010midterms — have begun co-opting the male-dominated lingo for their ownuse. Former Nevada GOP Senate nominee Sharon Angle told her soft-spoken opponent, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, to “man up” and former GOP Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell told her challenger, Sen.-elect Chris Coons, “this is not abake-off, get your man-pants on.”

“We’reseeing some woman-on-woman and woman-on-man action with all thisrhetoric, you’re absolutely correct,” said Bennett. “[But] it’sunacceptable either way. When a woman uses this terminology … that is,at its foundation, forced… In a way, it’s an ‘if you can’tbeat them, join them,’ mentality. That doesn’t mean it’s right.”

Bennett has a standard for determining appropriate language from inappropriate language.

“Ithink the litmus for us is diversibility. If a word or a term iscommonly against a man candidate then fair game,” continued Bennett. “But ifspecific words are not commonly used, it’s not fair game. It has pass thetest of diversibility.”

Soperhaps these “sexist” phrases do qualify as “diversibility.” Take,for instance, this mind warp: Testosterone-filled male and MSNBC host Ed Shultzadmonishes mama bear Sarah Palin for taunting alpha male President Obamaabout his lack of “cojones” while similarly implying that female Ariz.Gov. Jan Brewer does in fact have the equipment necessary togrow male sex bullets.

Shultz’s exact description of Palin? “.”

Other women’s advocates are still very much concerned about overt sexism inpolitics, but aren’t as sure about the “sexist” classification ofphrases like “man up.”

“Idon’t think it’s so much anti-women. There’s certainly are plenty ofwords that I would put in that category that get thrown around,” saidDonna Allen, founder and president of the . “But we still haven’t gotten rid of ‘mankind’ and those phrases so I don’t think it’s critical. “

Allendid stress that it is was important to move toward “inclusiveness” byeliminating phrases that everyone can agree are naughty.

“Maybethe result of this, the language will change a little and we’ll come upwith ones that aren’t loaded but are lively,” said Allen “It doesn’tmean we can never say anything, but I think it’s good to go in thedirection of cutting out some of the loaded words.”

WhileBennett offered a slightly different opinion, saying that “man up”comes from a “very nasty, negative source of sexism,” all the women’s advocacy groups agreed on one thing, unanimously: We need more chicks inpolitics.

Read more stories from The Daily Caller

No. 22 Iowa beats Central Michigan 90-79

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Morgan Johnson scored 21 points while Kachine Alexander added 20 points and 18 rebounds to help No. 22 Iowa beat Central Michigan 90-79 Sunday to improve to 5-0.

Jaime Printy added 18 for the Hawkeyes, who pulled away late to send the Chippewas (4-1) to their first loss of the year.

Central Michigan pulled within 69-63 midway through the second half. But Alexander buried a 3 to put the Hawkeyes ahead 82-72 with 4:34 left, and she followed a Johnson jumper with a layup to give Iowa a 12-point lead a minute later.

Shonda Long had 22 points and Kaihla Szunko had 12 points and 15 rebounds for the Chippewas, who hung around with the Big Ten's Hawkeyes despite shooting just 32.5 percent from the floor.

Iowa's road gets much tougher from here, as it plays James Madison, Virginia Tech and North Carolina before returning home to face Kansas State.

Iron Maiden to play UK arena shows

LONDON (Billboard) – Metal rock band Iron Maiden has confirmed a U.K. arena tour for next summer, which will be the culmination of its Final Frontier World Tour.

The Live Nation tour kicks off at Glasgow SECC on July 20. Other locations include Aberdeen AECC P&J Arena, Newcastle Metro Radio Arena, Sheffield Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham Trent FM Arena, Manchester MEN Arena, Birmingham NIA, Cardiff CIA Arena and Belfast Odyssey (promoted by MCD).

The tour wraps at London's O2 arena August 5.

The Final Frontier World Tour began in June 2010 with a 25-date trek throughout North America. It was followed by selected European stadium and festival shows, including Knebworth for the U.K. Sonisphere festival.

Maiden recently announced the first leg of the 2011 tour, which starts in February in Moscow at the Olympic Stadium.

Frontman Bruce Dickinson, also a commercial pilot, will fly the band and crew in a specially customized Boeing 757. It will carry band, crew and tons of equipment across five continents to 13 countries, visiting 26 cities for 29 shows.

EMI said the band's 15th album "The Final Frontier," released in August, went to No. 1 in 28 countries. It also made No. 1 in Billboard's European albums chart.

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)