Abuse

The hashtag #Break_Your_Silence_Speak_Up went viral among Saudi women who started sharing their bitter stories that often go untold.

One woman said that she has been locked up for a year inside the house after her mother learned that her father had raped her over three years. She now needs to be treated for depression as a result of the psychological damage she endured.

A video of Atif Aslam interrupting his live performance in Karachi on Saturday has been shared thousands of times.

The popular singer told the alleged harassers: "Have you ever seen a girl? She could be your mother or a sister."

Pakistani media said the venue was overcrowded and that several girls reported being harassed.

In a letter sent on 28 December but released by the Vatican on Monday, the pope said he begged forgiveness for "a sin that shames us".

"I would like us to renew our complete commitment to ensuring that these atrocities will no longer take place in our midst."

Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has taken some steps to root out sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and introduce practices to protect children. But victims' groups say he has not done enough, particularly to hold to account bishops who tolerated sexual abuse or covered it up.

Emily and Ruth are two women who found themselves locked in lopsided battles - facing harassment, intimidation, and crowd-funded lawyers.

Neither of them realised what it would cost them.

was late when Ruth walked up to the front door. She was already nervous and the dark November evening wasn’t helping. Pressing the doorbell, she heard it ring faintly inside. Light shone through the curtains but minutes ticked by and no-one came out. Why weren’t they answering? She’d been invited.

Finally, she heard footsteps and watched as the door opened a crack.

In an open letter on Twitter, the 29-year-old said she'd been attacked by a "significant other" and a bar owner.

She wrote the post after an interview in Rolling Stone magazine, in which she talked about being subjected to "physical, psychological, sexual" abuse and attempting suicide in her early 20s.

The star said the attacks happened "many, many years ago".

But some Malawians are asking why only one man is on trial for a practice involving whole communities.

Eric Aniva was arrested in July on presidential orders after he admitted having unprotected sex with girls as young as 12 - and keeping quiet about his HIV-positive status.

Aniva says he was hired by the girls' relatives to take part in a sexual initiation ceremony which they believe "shakes off" the girl's childhood "dust" so that she can enter adulthood.

In the letter to Teenage magazine's agony aunt, the writer, apparently a teenage girl, said she was raped by a friend and had "no-one to turn to".

The Dear Kelly columnist said in reply that she had "acted like a girl who had been around" and should be "grateful he wore a condom".

It also added that she was too "naive".

The teenage girl recounted a series of events in which she had lied to her parents to stay over at a boy's place unsupervised.

She and her colleagues were out on a rural piece of South Carolina land Thursday morning, preparing to serve a search warrant.

She asked the other deputies whether they heard the banging, too. But it was hard to tell. It could have been just some noise coming from the woods, someone said.

The deputies listened more closely, and hearing it again they moved closer to a 30-foot-long shipping container and knocked on the side.

Her story illustrates just how powerful armed groups still are. Even though a ceasefire has been declared between the army and the left-wing Farc rebels, parts of the country remain lawless.

A statuesque Afro-Colombian woman wearing a bright turban and loose flowing robes hovers over her patient and gently prods his stomach.

Footage of six boys being gassed at the Don Dale detention centre in 2014 has led to widespread condemnation of conditions for youth detainees.

All six are seeking damages for mistreatment, the Australian Broadcast Corp (ABC) reports.

But the NT government says the boys caused serious damage to the centre.

According to the ABC report, authorities say the damage, costing A$89,000 ($67,000;£51,000) ,was caused when the boys escaped from the centre in 2015.