The Last Refuge

WASHINGTON -- Greater efforts must be taken to combat the growing trend of violence against women and end the "climate of perpetual fear" they face, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the State Department's Senior Roundtable for Women's Justice on March 12, 2008.

(CNN) -- Honorata Kizende was hiding in a house when the soldiers came. They kicked the front door down and found her huddling with her five children and another woman. The men asked the women if they were hiding their husbands. We have none, both replied. Then one of the soldiers said something that chilled Kizende, because she knew what was about to happen.

CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) -- Two teenagers hid overnight in a house and spent more than six hours torturing a disabled woman after her mother left in the morning, authorities said.