Women are having sexual problems. Forty percent of women said they have sexual problems, but only 12 percent are distressed about it, according to a new study reported by HealthDay. “The good news is that 12 percent is a very different number than 40 percent,” said study author Dr. Jan Shifren, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School and director of the Vincent Menopause Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, both in Boston. But 12 percent of 83 million U.S. women ages 20 to 65 is still troublesome, researchers said in a related editorial in the November issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. The research was funded by Boehringer Ingelheim International, maker of flibanserin, a drug for female sexual dysfunction that is currently being tested in clinical trials. The study included almost 32,000 female respondents ages 18 and older. Overall, 43.1 percent of those surveyed reported some kind of sexual problem: 39 percent reported diminished desire; 26 percent reported problems with arousal; and 21 percent expressed problems achieving orgasm. Only 12 percent, however, reported significant personal distress associated with this problem.

World Lens:

South Africa’s president calls it quits; Ethiopia suffers through a hunger crisis; and hip hop comes to Peru. See pics.
 Somali militants attack peacekeepers. Somali Islamist militants unleashed an attack on peacekeepers sparking fighting that resulted in the deaths of 17 civilians Wednesday. According to witnesses the violence was ground shaking. “The fighting was so heavy it shook the ground under our feet. Both sides were using heavy artillery – including tanks used by the AU,” said a Somali cameraman, adding that it was the most violent fighting he’d seen between the two forces. The militia, Al-Shaabab, recently stepped up attacks against African Union peacekeepers. Fighting earlier this week killed at least 33 civilians. An AU spokesman accused the militia of trying to draw them into a war, when they are only there to keep peace. They were “intended to draw [AU] into direct armed confrontation with the opposition forces, and therefore appear to be involved directly in the conflict…We refuse to be drawn into this senseless war,” the spokesman, Maj. Barigye Ba-Hoku, said in a statement.  Al-Shaabab has also been launching attacks against Ethiopian troops who are in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu helping to stabilize the government. Ever since Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991, the government has been unstable.

S.A. couple killed while having sex on a train track. In South Africa, a train ran over and killed two people having sex on the track, reports the BBC. The incident took place late last week at a train station in Kinross. The victims have not been identified yet. The couple apparently had ignored warnings from the train driver as he was getting closer, police spokesman Abie Khoabane told local media. “They continued with their business,” he said. The area was deserted at the time of the accident. The man passed away at the scene of the accident and the woman died at the hospital later. Police are asking for anyone who has relatives that might have recently gone missing to help with their investigation.

Vital Signs: The Republican VP pick’s teen daughter’s pregnancy is her business, but what does it say about “abstinence-only” sex education that conservatives like Sarah Palin are so fond of? Read more at Vital Signs.

Black girls who smoke pot are far more likely to take sexual risks and to contract sexually transmitted diseases than non-weed-smokers, according to a new study that examines the behavior of young African-American females. Girls who took marijuana had significantly higher rates of STDs than non-marijuana users (32 percent compared to 23 percent), Emory University researchers found after studying marijuana use and self-reported sexual behavior of 439 sexually active African-American females between the ages of 15 and 21. Marijuana users also had more sex partners, riskier sex partners, including a partner just released from jail, and more recent episodes of engaging in vaginal sex, compared to those who did not use marijuana, the study found. “While adolescent African-American females remain a high-risk group for STDs, little research has examined their marijuana use, sexual behaviors and incidence of STD infection,” said study co-author Ralph DiClemente, professor of public health at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health. “Although no differences in condom use were identified between marijuana users and non-users, results suggest that marijuana users are engaging in sexual acts with riskier partners and under riskier circumstances, and had higher rates of STDs,” DiClemente said. DiClemente and his team did not compare the behavior of Black girls’ using marijuana against White girls or girls of other ethnic groups. However, they recommend STD- and HIV-intervention programs designed for adolescent African-American females that promote condom use as well as emphasize the risks of drug use and STD and HIV infection. These findings are being presented at the International AIDS Conference meeting now in Mexico City.

Rebels Attack Two Nigerian oil pipelines
A Nigerian rebel group took responsibility for damaging two oil pipelines in southern Nigeria, reports CNN. About the attack, the group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), said “detonation engineers backed by heavily armed fighters” caused damage to the pipelines early Monday morning. The rebels believe that the pipelines, located in two different cities, are the property of Shell Petroleum Development Company. And Shell has confirmed damage to at least one of its pipelines in the country. “We are working to ascertain the extent of the damage and have shut in some production to limit the amount of crude that will spill into the environment,” Caroline Wittgen, a Shell spokeswoman said. Nigeria is one of the United States’ major oil suppliers, and the rebel attacks on oil pipelines in the nation have led to the rise in crude oil prices. The recent attacks have cut the region’s oil production by 10 percent. “Anytime a pipeline is affected, anytime any production gets shut down, you see oil prices jump up one or two dollars a barrel just because there is no slack in the system,” Jim LeCamp, senior vice president with RBC Wealth Management ( a company that works with wealthy clients internationally) told CNN. Since 2006, MEND has made it a point to attack big foreign oil companies – by bombing pipelines or kidnapping foreign oil employees for ransom – because they believe the oil wealth should be shared with the mostly poor citizens of the Niger Delta region. More than 70 percent of natives in the oil-rich area get paid less that a dollar each day.