A few random things of note.
In The Herald, "V-day seeks justice for comfort women" by Leyla Linton notes:
V-Day, an anti-violence movement founded by Eve Ensler, author of the Vagina Monologues, is today launching a campaign to seek an apology and compensation for women forced into wartime brothels run by the Japanese army.
Japan has refused the women compensation, claiming post-war treaties dealt with the issue. Courts have rejected lawsuits brought by the former sex slaves, or comfort women.
An estimated 200,000 women, mostly from Korea and the Philippines but also from China, Indonesia and the Netherlands, were pressed into prostitution for millions of Japanese soldiers stationed throughout Asia before and during the second world war. Some were forced to sleep with up to 50 men a day.
"They have such dignity and wisdom and their lives have been hell. They have not had justice," said Ensler.
The always busy Condi Rice is still too busy to read judging by this story in The Moscow Times:
The Kommersant reporter said Bush should account for limits on personal freedoms imposed after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. But before Bush had a chance to respond, Kolesnikov called on the two presidents "to simply agree [that neither of their countries is fully democratic], to shake hands and continue to be friends."
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that ahead of the Putin-Bush meeting he had sent a collection of stories from Russian newspapers and clips from Russian television to his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He said his intention was to convince her that the media in Russia were free, Interfax reported Friday.
But when they met in Bratislava and he asked Rice whether she had seen the television clips, she said she had not yet had time, Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying.
[Note, post corrected thanks to e-mails from Ben, Tori, Lynda and Jamie.]
