Woman Says Cleveland Killer Attacked Her • San Francisco Bans Cat Declawing

• Tanja Doss says Anthony Sowell choked and threatened her earlier this year in the Cleveland home where 11 decomposing bodies were found. She didn't report the crime and now she believes her friend was one of his victims.

Carmichael says Sowell invited her to the house in April for a beer. They were upstairs talking, "and then he just clicked," Doss said. "I'm sitting on the corner of the bed and he just leaped up and came over and started choking me. He said, 'If you want to live, knock three times on the floor.' And I knocked on the floor." He made her lay on the bed and take her clothes off but didn't try to rape her. She fell asleep and when she woke up he acted like nothing had happened and she left. She didn't report the crime because she's done jail time on a drug charge and assumed the police wouldn't believe her. Her friend disappeared later that month and Doss believes she may be one of the 10 unidentified victims. • Brigitte Harris of New York is facing up to 15 years in prison for killing her father when she cut off his penis. She cooked his penis on the stove because she heard that John Bobbitt's penis had been reattached, but said she didn't mean to kill him. She says her father had been raping her since she was 3 and she decided to take action because she was afraid he was about to do the same to her nieces. "Thinking back now, I definitely would have tried to put my resources into getting him put in jail," she said. "But I thought that people weren't going to believe me." • In Florida a 7-month old baby who was reported missing by her mother was found five days later in a box under her babysitter's bed. The mother, Chrystina Lynn Mercer, had asked babysitter Susan Elizabeth Baker to permanently take custody of the girl but didn't say why. The babysitter had written to Governor Charlie Christ over the summer asking him to help the baby because her father shook her and mother did drugs in front of her. • A guard at a "black jail" in China plead guilty to raping a 21-year-old detainee. Human rights groups say many people who come to Beijing to air complaints ignored by local authorities are rounded up by provincial officials who are worried the complaints will get them in trouble. The government still denies these "black jails" exist and the term was not mentioned in the trial. • Canadian researchers have found that oral contraceptives may benefit women with asthma. Women with asthma who were not taking birth control pills had lower exhaled nitric oxide levels, whcih is a marker of airway inflammation, than women who were on the pill. • Doctors are now injecting botox into women's chest muscles to tighten sagging cleavage. British cosmetic surgeon Sach Mohan said: "A young woman who has recently been pregnant might not have very much in her wardrobe that fits. But she is under pressure to look good just weeks after giving birth. This is another tool in their armory." • Between 20,000 and 40,000 women in the United States are allergic to their husband's sperm. Within half an hour of unprotected sex an allergic woman can develop hives, swollen eyes, diarrhea, and breathing difficulties. The condition can be treated and it's even possible for couple's to have children with a doctor's help. • The National Assembly in Pakistan has passed a bill calling for harsher punishment for sexually harassing women. Under the new bill, which will now go to the senate, the punishment for sexual harassment will be three years in jail and a fine of $6,000. Now the maximum punishment is one year in prison and an unspecified fine. • Gay marriage activists are blaming the failure of Maine's gay marriage law in Tuesday's election on scare-mongering ads and President Obama's failure to speak out in favor of the law. "President Obama missed an opportunity to state his position against these discriminatory attacks with the clarity and moral imperative that would have helped in this close fight," said Evan Wolfson of the national advocacy group Freedom to Marry. "The anti-gay forces are throwing millions of dollars into various unsubtle ads aimed at scaring people, so subtle statements from the White House are not enough." • The defeat of same-sex marriage in Maine has inspired anti-gay marriage activists in New Hampshire to draft legislation that would repeal the state's recently-passed law allowing gay marriage and put the issue to a vote again. • A USA Today/Gallup poll of potential Republican voters in 2012 found that 71% would "seriously consider" voting for Mike Huckabee, with Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin tying for second place. • While 65 percent of Republicans in the same poll said that they would consider voting for Sarah Palin, only 58 percent said she was qualified to be president. • San Francisco has banned the declawing of cats. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, chief sponsor of the legislation, said, "It is well documented and well understood from a medical perspective that it is torture; it is a form of animal cruelty." •

Send an email to Margaret Hartmann, the author of this post, at margaret@jezebel.com.

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