Rape Victim Is A Giants Fan • Male Contraceptive Blasts Away Sperm Via Ultrasound?

• The 16-year-old who brought rape charges against Lawrence Taylor says she didn’t recognize the NFL player at the time of the assault, but because she’s a “huge Giant fan,” she isn’t sure she wants him to go to jail.

“He paid me $300 cash to have sex with him,” says the teen, who admits lying about her age. “I got it over with as quickly as I could. Afterward, all he said was turn off the TV before you leave.” And this whole thing leaves her conflicted: “After all,” she said, “He’s in the Hall of Fame and he won two Super Bowls.” • Qatar has announced plans to begin introducing women’s soccer in schools and start a national league this year as part of their bid to host the 2022 World Cup. The formal World Cup bid is due this week, and there are nine bidders for the 2022 event. “There is already huge interest in football among Qutari women and the decision to create a women’s football league is a significant step forward,” said Ahlam Al Mana, president of the Qatar Women’s Sport Committee. • Researchers in the United Arab Emirates have found that local women are at an increased risk of developing leukemia. They suggest that the practice of using henna could be partially to blame – not the plant-based dye itself, but rather the compounds used as solvents for the powder. • Air pollutants, particularly nitrogen dioxide, may be to blame for failed fertility treatments, according to doctors. A team of experts looked at data from over seven years (2000-2007) from 7,000 women in American hospitals undergoing IVF and found that there is a relationship between air pollution and the success of IVF. Dr Duanping Liao believes that his findings may have greater implications as to how air quality effects human reproduction. • Pollution may also lower a man’s sperm count, according to UK researchers, and this process can begin before the boy is even born. Male fetuses can be negatively impacted by their mother’s habits and environment; being exposed to smoke, pesticides, traffic fumes and plastics can all lead to a decreased sperm count for the male fetus. Doctors say that exposure during this “window” of testicular development (which ends in the first six months of infancy) could very well make a boy infertile for life. • Sarah Palin’s next book, America By Heart: Reflections On Family, Faith And Flag

Yeardley Love’s former lacrosse coach Julie Myers spoke to the press Monday for the first time about the death of one of their players. She did not discuss the specifics of Love’s murder, but instead focused on the healing process, which will begin with winning Sunday’s first-round N.C.A.A. tournament game. “These are Yeardley’s best friends,” Myers said. “She would want nothing more for them to see them continue their seasons.” • Thirty schoolgirls in the northern city of Kunduz, Afghanistan were admitted to the hospital on Tuesday after a suspected poisonous gas attack on their school. Six more girls from Kabul were also hospitalized, and authorities believe they were victims of a separate attack. One of the girls reports seeing a man in black clothes throwing a bottle into the school, from which fumes immediately began to rise. Police are not yet certain what type of gas was used in the attacks, and are still open to the possibility that the mass illness was caused by food poisoning. • A $100,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will make it possible for researchers to begin testing whether a blast of ultrasound to the testes can safely stop sperm production for up to six months. The lead researcher for the clinical trials says that this may provide men with “reliable, low-cost, non-hormonal contraception from a single round of treatment.” Sounds like a win-win. • For years, massage chairs have been a popular feature in many Japanese living rooms. However, the chairs are usually large and leather-clad, which supposedly makes them uninviting to women. In attempts to up their sales, several electronics companies are marketing smaller, sleeker massage chairs to women. • Judge Belvin Perry Jr. has rejected defense arguments in the case of Casey Anthony against capital punishment on the grounds that it was unduly harsh and sexist. Anthony’s attorneys claimed that she was being crucified by the media for her “party girl” reputation and, that as a mother, she is held to higher standards of conduct than man would be. • Erica Blasberg‘s father has spoken to the press saying that his daughter was “very upbeat” in the days before her death and that the is no way she committed suicide. At 25, Blasberg was an LPGA superstar who had just returned from the Tres Marias Championship tournament. •