Intensive, integrated programmes to identify likely deadly stalkers can be hugely effective, according to data quoted by by Magnus Linklater in today’s Times.

If [UK] police and social services studied techniques now routinely used in countries such as America, Canada and Finland, but which are radically different from those deployed in Britain, 80 per cent of the deaths that are likely to happen over the next three years could be prevented. And since, on average, two women die each week in this country at the hands of a current or former partner, that is a substantial claim….Mosaic20, a computerised model that assessed the likelihood of an attack, placed it on a scale of one to ten and measured it against nationally compiled statistics. So accurate did their predictions become that San Diego, where such attacks were common, was persuaded to set up a family justice centre, where anyone believing that they may be at risk can go for expert assessment and, if necessary, protection. The centre has been instrumental in reducing the domestic murder rate from 12 a year to just one.

* The global epidemic of tobacco use among women and girls, from the Canadian Women’s Health Network. (Lots of other good stuff on that site.)

* A review of the fascinating-sounding Uncommon Ground: White Women in Aboriginal history.

* The latest ILO publication on “Equality at work: Tackling the challenge”.

* A belated pointer to the weekend’s Britblog Roundup No 117.

There’s often a lot of assumptions about why women have abortions: if you read these stories it is clear how complicated women’s lives can become. Should women like these be forced into facing the further impediment of having to break the law to get an abortion?

Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state (were it to be a country on its own it would be the world’s sixth most-populous, will be governed by a woman, and what’s more a Dalit (formerly Untouchable) woman, Mayawati.

Mayawati looks able to form a majority without the help of any other party in the state’s 403-seat house. She has been chief minister of the state three times, but each was a short stint where her party was a junior partner in a coalition.
Her victory can be traced to her decision two years ago to drop her anti-upper caste vitriol and court other social groups. The fiery speaker built an unlikely partnership between Brahmins, at the top of the Hindu caste hierarchy, and Dalits or untouchables, at the bottom. Mayawati’s strategy saw her party field 86 upper-caste Brahmin candidates, compared with 91 Dalits.

Only about half of the women of Uttar Pradesh can read and write – hopefully she might be able to take some steps towards dealing with that.