Raping

For the first time since her 2002 abduction by a self-proclaimed religious prophet captured worldwide attention, Elizabeth Smart spoke publicly about her ordeal today, testifying in federal court that Brian David Mitchell repeatedly invoked religion to justify sexually abusing her for months. Testifying in a hearing to determine whether Mitchell is mentally competent to face federal kidnapping charges, Smart, now 21, calmly detailed nine months of being shackled and repeatedly raped.

With his dead father's picture glowering over his shoulder, Lyle Menendez testified Monday that the man he killed was a tyrant who drilled him to hide emotions, fix "flaws" and regard others as inferior. The 25-year-old defendant began his second day on the stand in a subdued tone as he prepared to tell jurors how he and his brother, Erik, 22, came to kill their millionaire parents with shotguns and why they claim self-defense.

AMARILLO, Texas - It's well after midnight in a parched corner of Texas known as the buckle of the Bible Belt, down the road from the Jesus Christ is Lord Travel Center, which is just what it sounds like: an evangelical truck stop. In the back of an empty strip mall, an up-and-coming hip-hop artist with the self-assurance and billowing locks of Samson is shooting a video. His hair is up in a tidy bun and he's enduring a second hour of makeup transforming him into the likeness of a gender-bending woman, all of which makes more sense once you know that Adair Lion began his career by destroying it. Hip-hop has been described as the heartbeat of urban America, but for years, it had an open secret - that heart was brimming with hate.

It was another bruising year for the liberal judges of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals as the Supreme Court overturned the majority of their decisions, at times sharply criticizing their legal reasoning. Appeals from the nine Western states of the circuit dominated the high court's docket, as usual, supplying more than 30% of the 84 cases taken up by the justices during the term that ended last month. The Supreme Court reversed or vacated 19 of the 26 decisions it looked at from the 9th Circuit this judicial term, issuing especially pointed critiques of the court's handling of cases involving prisoners' rights and death row reprieves.

Double-murder charges against a 35-year-old Van Nuys man accused of raping and killing two female transients were dismissed Wednesday because DNA tests showed that someone else sexually assaulted one of the victims. Steven C. Leigh, described as a satanist and white power advocate, remains a suspect in the murders of Dawn McGrath, 21, and Jamie J. Jensen, 13, found shot Jan. 20, prosecutors said. However, Leigh's attorney, Bruce C.

WASHINGTON - In declaring that women's bodies can somehow prevent pregnancy in the event of a rape, Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) sparked a national conversation about a scientifically unsubstantiated theory, sending reporters scurrying in search of the data that would prove him right or wrong. Surprisingly few hard facts and figures were available about the prevalence of rape-related pregnancies. Many news outlets, including this one, cited a 1996 study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which estimated that more than 32,000 women experience a rape-related pregnancy each year.

People Who Eat Darkness The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished From the Streets of Tokyo - and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up Richard Lloyd Parry FSG Originals: 464 pp., $16 paper Americans have an advantage in reading "People Who Eat Darkness" - we are less likely to know about Lucie Blackman. The blond Brit was 21 when she disappeared in Japan in 2000; the months-long search for her made headlines in both Japan and England. Unlike readers there, we have an extra level of suspense - we don't know what happened to Lucie - although we will by the middle of this masterful literary true crime story, which earns its comparisons to Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" and Norman Mailer's "The Executioner's Song.

Regarding sexual bias and exploitation, Turan's observation that only women are singled out for this type of onscreen treatment is crucial. The old '60s refrain that "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" applies here. Why aren't women conscious of this phenomenon? Why do they passively attend such films with their significant others--without protest? As long as women ignore the disempowering impact of contributing to the box-office gross of these films, Hollywood will continue to serve up still more appalling fare--for each must aim for greater shock value than the last.

The article by Ezell was the most heartwarming and factual piece on unwanted pregnancy that I have ever read. OLIVE O'BRIEN, Palos Verdes Estates