Women

It's been four years now since our last encounter with Robert Langdon, the be-tweeded hero who has Da Vinci'd and Demon-ed his way through three previous Dan Brown page-rippers. Brown's last book, " The Lost Symbol ," came out in 2009, smack in the vortex of a Brownado — a whirling era of "Da Vinci Code" European tour packages and Tom Hanks's second cinematic turn as the lank-haired Harvard symbologist. "The Lost Symbol" seemed of the moment and of particularly heightened American interest, set as it was in D.C. Tuesday marks...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Auburn women's golf team had to overcome far more than the normal highs and lows of the sport to make the NCAA championships. Coach Kim Evans was diagnosed with clear cell ovarian cancer May 7. One of the Tigers' top players, Victoria Trapani, missed much of the spring after doctors found her mother's breast cancer had returned in December. Assistant coach Margaret Shirley left in February because she couldn't travel with the team during her own bout with...

Activist Adam Kokesh has asked 1,000 people to march across the Potomac on July 4 carrying loaded rifles. He calls it a protest against "tyranny. " Suppose the D.C. police, as they have promised, block the marchers from crossing into Washington? How should they respond? "With Satyagraha, " Kokesh, 31, texted The Washington Post. That is a term used by Mahatma Gandhi to describe his strategy of nonviolent resistance to British rule in India. Invoking Gandhi while advocating the carrying of...

In its most destructive moments, the Maryland women's lacrosse team attacks defenses like a tidal wave. Eight Terrapins have scored at least 20 goals this season for a team ranked first nationally. Yet what makes Maryland a favorite to win its 12th national championship next weekend rests in its ability to change gears. On a drizzly Saturday afternoon in College Park, the Terps used set pieces like weapons to beat Duke, 14-9, and advance to the NCAA tournament semifinals for the fifth consecutive...

Shorty needed a ride home. She got confused sometimes, the result of some undefined mental condition, and wasn't always sure where she'd wandered. Her family knew this about Michelle "Shorty" Knight, all 4 feet 7 inches of her, and that's why they worried. She got in a car. It begins there, with that simple act, a 21-year-old — in many ways still very much a girl — got in a car. Aug. 22, 2002. If she'd looked up in that last moment of freedom, she would have seen a...

Jack Diamond, a fixture on Washington's radio airwaves for more than two decades, may have broadcast his last program on WRQX-FM, the station known as Mix 107.3. Diamond was scrubbed from the station's Web site after his broadcast Friday morning. Station Manager Mark O'Brien said in an e-mail that an announcement about Diamond's replacement would be made Monday. "The Jack Diamond Morning Show" has been Mix 107.3's marquee attraction for 24 years. It predates the...

CLEVELAND — The families of three women who spent years in captivity inside a Cleveland home celebrated on Tuesday their remarkable rescue, as questions began emerging about why police were called to the house at least twice in recent years yet never went inside. The women — Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight — vanished separately a decade ago while in their teens and early 20s only blocks from the eight-room house where they were found Monday night. Their rescue...

Charles Ramsey, the Cleveland dishwasher who heard a scream, kicked in a door and rescued three women from horrific captivity, stepped out of a white Rolls-Royce on U Street NW Friday night and seconds later was on Alex Soto's Facebook page. "You're kidding me," shouted Soto, who was strolling in front of Ben's Chili Bowl with his girlfriend when Ramsey miraculously emerged from the gleaming Rolls. "You're, like, a lifesaver. I've been watching...

FRIDAY, Dec. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Women who choose to donate eggs to help infertile couples should know the procedure comes with both psychological and physical risks, the first study to examine the long-term effects of donation shows. Women also need to know that little data is available to assess whether donating eggs when young has any effect on fertility later in life, experts said. A new study in the December issue of Fertility and Sterility found that almost one in five women reported lasting...

In the fall of 1942, residents of a rural swath of east Tennessee began receiving official notifications that their homes and farms were no longer theirs and that they would have to move. The new owner was the U.S. government, which swept up some 59,000 acres of land and in a matter of months built an instant city of 75,000 people so secret it wasn't even listed on maps. Its purpose? To process uranium for the world's first atomic bomb. The...

CINCINNATI — For more than 100 years, the Anna Louise Inn in downtown Cincinnati has been a safe, serene place that thousands of struggling women came to know as home. But after losing a two-year fight with a Fortune 500 company determined to buy their beautiful, 104-year-old property and turn it into a boutique hotel — even though it wasn't for sale — the women of the Anna Louise Inn have to leave the neighborhood. While most of the 60 women living there are relieved that...

KABUL, Afghanistan — Conservative religious lawmakers in Afghanistan blocked legislation on Saturday aimed at strengthening provisions for women's freedoms, arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles and encourage disobedience. The fierce opposition highlights how tenuous women's rights remain a dozen years after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime, whose strict interpretation of Islam once kept Afghan women virtual prisoners in their homes. Khalil Ahmad...

PHILADELPHIA — From pink baseball bats, cleats and wristbands on Mother's Day to pink caps, gloves and even penalty flags throughout October, professional sports organizations have recognized women for years by changing their colors to support breast cancer awareness. Sports vendors take it a step further, targeting women as customers. Just look at the broad range of products for women found in any retail store that sells team merchandise. Considering females comprise 45 percent of NFL...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A man accused of imprisoning three women in his Cleveland home for a decade spends most of his time in jail resting or asleep, with breaks for pacing, showers and cell cleaning. New jail logs released Friday also document defendant Ariel Castro thanking a guard for bringing him breakfast and wishing him a good day. Castro, 52, remains on suicide watch with his activities documented in writing every 10 minutes at the Cuyahoga County jail. He...

CLEVELAND — An official says a charity set up to help the three women freed from a decade of captivity in a Cleveland house has raised more than $480,000 so far. Lynne Woodman of KeyBank tells The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer (http://bit.ly/10V7Mh8 ) that there have been more than 5,100 donations to what has been named the Cleveland Courage Fund. She says donations have come all 50 states and several foreign countries. The money will go into four trust funds established for the...

MINNEAPOLIS — Two Minnesota women convicted of conspiring to send money to al-Shabab in Somalia were given prison sentences in federal court Thursday, ending a week of punishments tied to long-running investigations into recruiting and financing for the terrorist group. Amina Farah Ali, 36, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on 13 terrorism-related counts, and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, 66, received a 10-year term on one terror-related count and two counts of lying to...

"What Makes Powerful Men Act Like Pigs," declared the cover of the May 30 issue of Time magazine. "What's the Matter With Men?" asked the conservative-leaning Independent Women's Forum on May 19. "Why Men Cheat," teased a story on the Huffington Post last week. Those looking for explanations to these questions should stop reading now. I don't have the answers, nor am I interested in doing the difficult, ultimately fruitless and arbitrary work of providing any. For one thing, I'm not sure it really...

A group of men have committed themselves to an unlikely way of challenging the violence that has swept Syria in recent months, pledging to marry women they have never met. In this village near the Turkish border, Syrians fleeing their country's security forces have established a makeshift tent city. Hundreds of families, bearing only what they could fit in their cars, eagerly hope for the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, horror stories swirl about what has befallen the towns and villages...

LOS ANGELES — The thriller "Black Rock" is about a trio of childhood friends (Kate Bosworth, Lake Bell and director Katie Aselton) who travel to a remote island off the coast of Maine to work through past issues and reconnect. But when it turns out they're not the only ones on the island, they end up having to fight for their lives. Aselton's film, playing in select cities this weekend and through video on demand nationwide, celebrates the inner strength and resourcefulness women...

TEHRAN, Iran — A member of Iran's constitutional watchdog group insists that women cannot be presidential candidates, a report said Thursday, effectively killing the largely symbolic bids by about 30 women seeking to run in the June 14 election. Even before the comments by Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, chances for a woman candidate in Iran's presidential election were considered nearly impossible. Women also have registered as potential candidates in past presidential...