• Researchers have found that the children born to mothers that have undergone weight loss surgery are healthier than older siblings born before the procedure. The younger siblings were found to have improved heart health and a lower risk of obesity. • A Sudanese judge has ruled that journalist Lubna Hussein, who was arrested in July for wearing pants, will not be flogged (flogging is a legal punishment for indecency). Hussein is still facing a $200 fine, which she is not planning on paying. "I will not pay a penny. I won't pay, as a matter of principle," she said. •  Health workers at a clinic in rural Peru were frustrated at the low rate of births taking place inside the clinic (only 6%), and so they decided to ask local women what they were doing wrong. The mothers were happy to help. The clinic will now respect traditional practices, ensure that they have a doctor on hand who speaks the local language, and allow relatives to stay and help with the birthing process. • Celebrity polar bear Knut is getting a new pal: Giovanna, a female polar bear from Munich. However, since both bears are not yet sexually mature, there is little chance they will consummate their relationship. • Scientists are attempting to pin down gender differences in brain function, yet even the study of the brain does not provide an easy way out of the "old nature/nurture dilemma." What they found is something many have long suspected: "Individuals' gender traits-their preference for masculine or feminine clothes, careers, hobbies and interpersonal styles-are inevitably shaped more by rearing and experience than is their biological sex." • Al Franken has a cool party trick, which he recently displayed at the Minnesota State Fair. Click here for a video of Franken drawing the entire US map from memory. • Women in Australia are in luck: the Bluetongue Brewery plans to hire 10 to 15 professional beer tasters in the next year. And since women apparently make better tasters, they are looking for boozy broads to fill the open positions. • This weekend, Linda Rice became the first woman to win a training title at Saratoga. Rice has been training since 1987, but this is the first time she has taken home a title. • An op-ed from this Sunday's New York Times argues that the cyberbullying laws under which Lori Drew was tried are "too vague to be constitutional." • The mayor of German border town Vierlinden has announced plans to deter prostitutes from gathering on the B1 motorway through the use of butyric acid, which apparently smells like vomit and body odor. • In October 2007, Afghan journalist Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh was jailed for blasphemy after she was caught downloading an internet article about women's rights. A few weeks ago, President Hamid Karzai finally pardoned Kambakhsh, and she has since been freed. • The Justice Department is urging a Santa Ana court to toss out a lawsuit that challenges President Obama's Constitutional qualifications to be president. The birthers' suit claims that Obama was not born in Hawaii and is a citizen of Indonesia, and "possibly still citizen of Kenya." • A Jewish community leader has condemned the AIDS awareness ad that features a man intended to represent Hitler in the throes of passion, saying that it both unsuccessful and offensive. We agree. • Feministing features an interesting video about gender and language. The Hariri Foundation introduced a program that replaced words that are generally read as masculine with accents that mark them as feminine. More here. • As of today, Girl Scouts will now be able to earn a new patch for "preparedness." "This new preparedness patch will increase citizen preparedness and enhance our country's readiness for disasters," said Homeland Security Department Secretary Janet Napolitano. • Farmers in India are facing increasing hardships as crops fail and debts pile up, which has caused many impovrished farmers to take the drastic measure of selling their wives. According to some reports, as many as several thousand men have sold their wives to money lenders, who then transfer the marriage contract to a third party. •

• Get your resumes ready: A tourist attraction in Britain is offering a salary of £50,000 for a knowledgeable witch. Duties include: teaching tourists about witchcraft and magic, hexing competing businesses, and pain-free wart removal. • Elderly Swedes may soon have the option to live in a gay-friendly nursing home. Plans have been in the works for ten years for a home that would advertise their welcoming attitude and accept all residents, gay or straight. • Same sex couples in Australia have won a legislative victory, with Law and Justice Committee in the New South Wales Parliament issuing a recommendation to change the law and force most adoption providers to allow adoption agencies to judge based on parental suitability and not sexual orientation. • D.C.'s new law recognizing same sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions went into effect today. Councilman David Catania plans to draft a bill to allow the city to perform same sex marriages but, given that Congress has 30 days to disapprove any law D.C. passes, its changes are uncertain. • The Viinzs Aviation Training Institute is now offering courses to Kashmiri women looking for upward mobility in careers like aviation. • Sad news: Oscar Mayer, the grandson of company founder Oscar F. Mayer, died today at the age of 95. • England has abandoned a £5.9m project to reduce teen pregnancies after figuring out that the program made girls more likely to become pregnant. "This pilot was based on a successful American programme. It didn't appear to reduce teenage pregnancy so we will not be taking it any further," said a spokeswoman from the Department of Health. •  A new report by the Guttmacher Institute shows that the United States' restrictions on Medicaid funding for abortion (i.e., the Hyde Amendment) forces 1 in 4 poor women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. Conservatives have responded that that's the point. • One in four women in America who has an abortion has a medical abortion rather than a surgical one. • Police in Germany received a call on Wednesday about a badger believed to be lying dead in the middle of the road. It turns out that the badger was alive, but not quite well: he had gotten extremely drunk off fermented cherries, which gave him a bad case of the runs. Police eventually chased the non-responsive animal from the road with a broom. • The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights and the UN's Assistance Mission in Afghanistan issued a report on the culture of impunity in Afghanistan that results in further violence against women. •

[Berlin, Germany; January 7. Images via Getty]

Polar bear Knut plays in the snow at the Tiergarten zoo in Berlin on January 7, 2008. The bear caused a global sensation when he survived rejection by his mother and attracted more than two million visitors to the zoo. AFP PHOTO DDP/ MICHAEL KAPPELER GERMANY OUT (Photo credit should read MICHAEL KAPPELER/AFP/Getty Images)

Thomas Doerflein, who worked at the Berlin Zoo and was known as the famous cub's surrogate father, died at 44 of a heart attack in September. The sale of his belongings has brought in 7,000 euros ($9,748) so far, and includes the sleeping bag Doerflein used while caring for Knut round the clock and his 10-year-old car. Doerflein's former fiance condemned the sale as "tasteless." His 18-year-old son reportedly needed money to buy his father's tombstone and care for his grave. [Reuters]

• Scientists around the world are working on new male contraceptive techniques one of which involves a remote-controlled sperm valve that can turn off sperm flow at the push of a button. • From today until October 10 a carnival will be held in Nigeria where "bachelor catchers" parade a bachelor around a village in a noose in order to encourage young men to marry. • The Guatemalan government has announced a five-month program to provide some 15,000 lay midwives proper training to avoid preventable childbirth deaths. • A new study from England says that women who are undergoing fertility treatments can increase their chances of having children if they undergo acupuncture during the embryo transfer as part of their regular fertility treatment. • The annulling of a French marriage in 2006 based on the fact that the wife lied about her virginity is currently being appealed because the court decided that a woman's virginity was an "essential quality" and therefore grounds for annulment. • Historians and economists believe that "witch-hunts" tend to occur when times get tough as evidenced by Western history and current persecution of "witches" around the world. • The Japanese Defense Ministry decided today to lift gender restrictions aboard destroyers for female members of the Maritime Self-Defense Force. • An English woman kept a baby hare alive by storing the little fluffball in her bra to keep it warm and feeding the hare baby formula with a syringe. • A pair of cloistered nuns in Spain are the country's newest celebrity chefs with a hybrid reality show and cooking show called Taste of Heaven. • A new rapid test for HPV, careHPV, may be able to help stop cervical cancer for some women in rural villages worldwide. • The Indian government's decision to review the Anti-Dowry Act has been criticized by women's organizations who want the Act to be strengthened instead of dissolved or relaxed. • Okay, so we have been entranced for the past hour by this cute video of a kitty playing "red light, green light" with a camera. Whatevs, it's cute! •

[Photo via Getty.]

[Image via Oh! My God! I Miss You]

[Knut the polar bear, Berlin. Image via Getty.]