Defending overall World Cup champion Lindsey Vonn of the United States was released from hospital Wednesday after being treated for a fall during a training session earlier that day.

A Jordanian was sentenced on Wednesday to 13 years in prison with hard labour for sexually assaulting his 20-year-old daughter more than 200 times since she was 11, a judicial official said.

`The father, 46, used to sexually abuse his daughter when her mother and brother were out of the house, and he threatened her not to tell anybody` in Marka, near Amman, the official told AFP.

A Jordanian man has been arrested for allegedly killing his wife and chopping her body up into small pieces over what a security official on Sunday called `accumulated differences.`

`The suspect, who was arrested two days ago, has confessed to the murder, which took place last December in Ruseifa, northeast of the capital Amman,` the official told AFP.

TEHRAN, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - Iran's police are to keep up their moral crackdown through the winter months, confronting couples whose behaviour in public is deemed to be inappropriate, officials said on Sunday.

Iran in April launched what has proved to be its most severe moral crackdown in years, handing out warnings to thousands of people for dress deemed to be unIslamic and other outlawed behaviour.

BAYAD AL-ARAB, Egypt, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - Twice circumcised, Wafaa Helmy swore her own daughters would never suffer the same fate.

But one night her own mother secretly took her first-born to go under the knife in their Upper Egypt village.

Despite pronouncements to the contrary by both Muslim and Christian clerics, she believes, as do many Egyptians, that this 'purification' is a religious duty that helps preserve a girl's virtue and honour.

The social stigma of not having her granddaughter's labia and/or clitoris cut off was just too strong for her.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Fifteen-month-old Benton is the spitting image of his father, a US soldier who died in Iraq two years before his son was born.

'He looks so much like his father, it's kind of scary,' his mother Kathleen Smith told AFP, as she talked about her unusual decision to have her soldier-husband's baby posthumously, using semen frozen before he was deployed.

'Benton is the child Brian and I could have had. I have part of what Brian and I could have had -- part of my dream was possible even after he died,' Smith, 42, said.

ABUJA, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - A simplistic understanding of Sharia Islamic law in 12 Nigerian states is leading to rights violations of detainees and women, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday.

'We are concerned that many officials, judges and members of the public have a simplistic understanding of Sharia that ignores the protection it grants an accused as well as the many rights it grants women,' the rights watchdog's executive director Ken Roth told a press conference in the Nigerian capital.

TOKYO, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Single mothers in Japan earn little more than one-third the average household, officials said Wednesday, in a new sign of the income disparity that has alarmed the country.

A survey by the health and labour ministry found that the average single mother earned 2.13 million yen (18,200 dollars) a year, or 37.8 percent the income of Japanese households, a ministry official said.

Japan's government, which is pursuing free-market reforms, is planning to reduce child-care allowances for single-mother households.

WASHINGTON, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - Hillary Clinton said Monday women voters could shatter America's 'highest glass ceiling' and make her its first female president, in her campaign's most overt bid so far to highlight her gender.

Clinton settled onto the couch of a popular morning television show aimed at women, and addressed a event named after ex-first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, launching a week of events showcasing the pivotal 2008 role of female voters.

'America is ready for change -- and I believe women will lead that change,' said Clinton in a campaign statement.

WASHINGTON, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - Hillary Clinton's campaign Monday made its most overt bit yet to highlight her historic potential as the possible first US woman president, suggesting female voters could vault her to victory.

The front-running Democrat kicked off a week of events highlighting her perceived appeal to women, as her campaign released a memo implying she could best exploit the 'pivotal' voting bloc in 2008.

'Women are and will be a powerful force in American politics this presidential election,' the memo said.

PRAGUE, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - A Czech court Friday ordered a hospital to pay a Roma woman 500,000 koruna (18,200 euro, 25,800 dollars) in damages for sterilising her without her consent.

The Ostrava regional court said the city's municipal hospital should not have performed the operation 10 years ago, adding that 30-year-old Iveta Cervenakova suffered physical and psychological damage as a result.

According to Cervenakova's lawyer, Michaela Kopalova, this is the first time a Czech court has awarded damages to a woman who was sterilised against her will.

GENEVA, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - More than half a million women, mostly in developing nations, die in pregnancy or childbirth each year and the number of deaths is being reduced too slowly to achieve United Nations-set goals, a report issued Friday said.

In 2005, 536,000 women died of maternal causes compared to 576,000 in 1990, according to the report compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Population Fund (UNFPA), and the World Bank.

Ninety-nine percent of the deaths occurred in developing countries, it said.

PARIS, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - One in five pregnancies worldwide ends in an abortion, amounting to a significant fall compared with the mid-nineties, but nearly half these terminations still take place in unsafe conditions, a study says.

In 2003, the latest year for which full figures are available, 42 million abortions were carried out around the world, compared with 46 million in 1995, according to the paper published by The Lancet next Saturday.

For every 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44 in 2003, 29 had an abortion, down from 35 in 1997, it said.

DUBLIN, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - The number of child abuse incidents reported in Ireland jumped by 29 percent last year, a womens' help agency said Thursday, citing national helpline figures.

Cases reported included an abuser urinating on a child, a child kicked in the stomach, children being beaten and being exposed to their mother being raped, said Women's Aid, which helps women suffering abuse.

STOCKHOLM, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - British writer Doris Lessing, who on Thursday won the Nobel Literature Prize, was the 11th woman to win the prestigious award. Here follows a list of her female predecessors:

2004 - Elfriede Jelinek

1996 - Wislawa Szymborska

1991 - Nadine Gordimer

1966 - Nelly Sachs (with Shmuel Agnon)

1945 - Gabriela Mistral

1926 - Grazia Deledda

1909 - Selma Lagerl?f

MUNICH, Germany, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - An Iraqi who repeatedly stabbed his wife then burned her to death in front of their young son in Germany was given a life sentence Thursday in the latest 'honour killing' trial to make national headlines.

The defendant, identified by the court in the southern city of Munich only as Kazim M., 36, admitted stabbing his 24-year-old Iraqi wife Sazan, dousing her with petrol and burning her alive in the street in front of their five-year-old son.

Hours earlier, a court had granted the couple a divorce.

TOKYO, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - Animal rights activists launched a campaign Thursday to pressure Miss Universe, Japan's Riyo Mori, to stop wearing fur, accusing her of promoting cruelty.

Mori, 20, a ballerina by training, wore a full-length fur coat at the pageant in Mexico City where she was crowned this year, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said.

It is encouraging its supporters to e-mail Mori after her office refused to respond to inquiries, the US-based rights group said.

RUPASPUR, India, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - Many Indian women make do with little more than scraps of old cloth when menstruating, often risking their health, say aid workers trying to make clean and cheap sanitary napkins available.

Store-bought pads cost 60 rupees (1.5 dollars) for a packet of eight in a country where a fifth of the populations lives on 25 cents or less per day. Monthly purchases of cotton cloth are also out of the price range of many.

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Women are being regularly tortured and sexually abused by Zimbabwean security forces for their opposition to President Robert Mugabe's regime, a new report by a leading rights group charged Tuesday.

'Many of us have been detained more than once and suffered extreme abuse perpetrated by state actors,' Jenni Williams, national coordinator of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), said at the launch of the report in Johannesburg.

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Astronauts on the International Space Station should have little trouble accepting a female boss, but if they do, the station's next commander will be reaching for her Kazakh riding whip.

US astronaut Peggy Whitson grinned broadly when a rope whip with ornate leather handle was presented to her on Tuesday by a member of the ground staff at the Baikonur cosmodrome in the Central Asian state of Kazakhstan.

PORT MORESBY, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Papua New Guinea authorities were urged to stamp out violence against women Tuesday after reports of a horrific attack in which a pregnant mother's baby was pulled from her womb.

More than 50 women, many dressed in black, attended parliament as the country's only woman MP, Community Development Minister Dame Carol Kidu, presented a petition calling for more action to end violence against women.

Kidu cited a horrifying incident where a woman was badly beaten by her husband then had her unborn child ripped from her womb.

KUMBWADA, Nigeria, Oct 7, 2007 (AFP) - In six generations no man has ever spent more than a week as ruler of Kumbwada, a kingdom in Muslim northern Nigeria. All have died mysteriously just after ascending to the thone.

The father of Hadiza Ahmed, the current female monarch, was no exception.

'My father decided to see if he could break the spell but he failed. In his first week on the throne he became so sick that he had to abdicate and was rushed out of the village. He died three weeks later,' recounted Hadiza.

OUAGADOUGOU, Oct 6, 2007 (AFP) - Forty people suspected of being involved in the genital mutilation of 19 girls and a three-month-old baby were taken into custody in Burkina Faso Faso, the campaigning group Social Action reported Saturday.

Social Action called local police earlier this week after receiving an anonymous tip-off that girls were being mutilated in his village, the group's local director Fousseni Ouedraogo told AFP by phone on Saturday.

SAINT-PETERSBOURG, Russia, Oct 5, 2007 (AFP) - France won gold in the women's team sabre, beating Ukraine 45-32 at the world fencing championships here on Friday.

The French, led by double world champion Anne-Lise Touya, left nothing to chance against the Ukrainians, who they beat by one hit in the final of the European championships in July in Ghent, Belgium.

PHNOM PENH, Oct 5, 2007 (AFP) - Cambodia's national women's rugby team will make its debut Saturday when the first ever Asian Rugby Football Union Women's sevens tournament kicks off at the kingdom's Olympic Stadium.

The Cambodian side will face teams from Singapore, Laos, Thailand and South Korea, Philippe Monnin, secretary general of the Cambodian Rugby Federation, said Friday.

'It is very important because it is the first time they are playing against other national teams,' Monnin told AFP, but added that the women still lack international experience.

WASHINGTON, Oct 5, 2007 (AFP) - They might swoop around in swish corporate jets and cherish dreams of the White House but 2008 presidential hopefuls want to be seen as regular folks -- and it's their spouses who are dishing the dirt.

While the relentless 2008 race is being bitterly fought -- over the war in Iraq, US policy on Iran and terrorism -- candidates are also trying, some might say too hard, to showcase their lighter side.

More often than not they are enlisting wives, and one well known husband, to knock the edges of their public image.

WASHINGTON, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - Pregnant women should eat more fish, a maternal nutrition group said Thursday, arguing that the benefits outweighed the concerns about the risks posed by trace amounts of mercury.

'The debate about mercury in fish and an FDA/EPA advisory have created confusion for pregnant women, causing a reduction in their fish consumption,' said the group of obstetricians and nutritionists.

WASHINGTON, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - The benefits of fish consumption for pregnant women outweigh the concerns about risks posed by trace amounts of mercury, a maternal nutrition group said Thursday.

The group of obstetricians and nutritionists, in partnership with the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB), noted that their recommendations come as 'the debate about mercury in fish and an FDA/EPA advisory have created confusion for pregnant women, causing a reduction in their fish consumption.

SEOUL, Oct 3, 2007 (AFP) - Paging Mrs. Kim Jong-Il.

For all the light that this week's landmark inter-Korean summit may shed on Pyongyang and Kim's secretive regime, one enduring mystery remains: where is the wife of the Dear Leader?

Kim, 65, has been reported to have lived with four women, none of whom has ever shown up in public -- raising intense speculation about the succession in the world's only communist dynasty.

WASHINGTON, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - Women feel threatened when outnumbered by the opposite sex, such as in math, science and engineering classrooms, while men enjoy being in a roomful of women, a study published Tuesday showed.

'Walking into a situation in which you sense the possibility of being ostracized or isolated can be quite threatening,' said the study, which looked at the effect of so-called situational cues, such as being outnumbered, on women's performance in math, science and engineering courses.

WASHINGTON, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - Having children could reduce the risk of getting breast cancer because cells with strong protective characteristics are transferred from the baby in the womb to the mother, a study showed Tuesday.

Researchers in Seattle studied 82 women, 35 of whom had been diagnosed with breast cancer, to test a theory that fetal cells which take up residence in the mother -- called fetal micro-chimerism -- protect against breast cancer.

SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - Russia's Elena Netchaeva claimed her first world sabre title when she beat Olympic silver medallist Xue Tan of China 15-12 at the world fencing championships here on Saturday.

There was disappointment however for the three American competitors who took all the podium places last year with 17-year-old defending champion Rebecca Ward being eliminated in the second round by Poland's Aleksandra Socha (15-14).

Ward arrived in Russia with high hopes after winning three World Cup events and the PanAmerican title.

NEW DELHI, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - US giant General Electric's healthcare unit, accused of helping fuel female abortions in India by pushing sales of ultrasound equipment, has said it will take steps to try to combat the problem.

GE Healthcare commands nearly 50 percent of the multi-million-dollar Indian market for ultrasound machines.

The machines are used widely to find out the gender of an unborn baby, even though the practice is banned under Indian law.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other women leaders attending the UN General Assembly on Friday called for an 'immediate' release of Myanmar opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

At a meeting, the 20 leaders also urged Myanmar's ruling military generals, 'as a matter of urgency,' to end violence against peaceful demonstrators and resume a path of dialogue and democracy, said a statement by the so-called Women Leaders' Working Group.

BERLIN, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Germany on Thursday launched a campaign to increase protection for women against sexual and domestic violence and zeroed in on the growing problem of forced marriage among Muslim immigrants.

The government plans about 130 programmes to help women who have been victims of abuse including stalking, trafficking and genital mutilation, Family Affairs Minister Ursula von der Leyen said.

'Violence against women is not an issue on the periphery of our society but rather takes place among us, at the heart of our society,' she told reporters.

OUAGADOUGOU, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - The west African nation of Burkina Faso Faso has succeeded in nearly halving the prevalence of female genital mutilation in the ten years since it was banned, a government minister said Wednesday.

Burkina Faso Faso banned the practice in 1996, and the following year it was estimated that its prevalence was roughly 80 percent.