EXCLUSIVE: 8 March 2010: The NSW government in Australia has issued what is believed to be the world’s first ‘Sex Not Specified’ Recognised Details Certificate in place of a birth certificate, writes Katrina Fox.

Norrie, a member of Sex and Gender Education (SAGE), a lobby group campaigning for the rights of all sex and gender diverse people has been issued with what is understood to be the world’s first ‘Sex Not Specified’ Recognised Details Certificate in place of a birth certificate.

This means that Norrie (also known as norrie mAy-Welby) – a resident of Sydney, NSW – is legally recognised as neither male nor female according to the Australian government.

Originally Norrie, 48, was born in Scotland and registered as male at birth. At age 23 Norrie commenced sex and gender conversion to female through hormone and construction of a vagina and was then issued with a gender recognition certificate as female in Australia.

But this did not work out for Norrie as zie (gender-neutral pronoun) did not feel comfortable living solely as a female so zie ceased lifelong hormone treatment and took up a neuter identity which is neither male nor female, resisting any further female or male normalisation.

In January 2010 doctors declared that they were unable to determine Norrie as either male or female as zie has no gonads, the hormonal system was atypically male or female, and Norrie’s psychological identity was neuter.

NSW Births Deaths and Marriages then issued the ‘Sex Not Specified’ Details Recognition Certificate in accordance with recommendations made by the Australian Human Rights Commission’s 2009 report on the legal rights of sex and gender diverse people proposing a greater scope of legal recognition be used beyond male and female for certain individuals.

“This decision now has fundamental ramifications for neuter and intersex identified individuals in that they no longer have to be forced to live as male or female,” said Tracie O’Keefe, spokesperson for SAGE.

“Furthermore it is an enormous legal breakthrough for the rights of intersex children whose doctors and parents are confused about their sex at births and that they could be registered as ‘Sex Not Specified’ until they decide what sex would be right for them,” O’Keefe continued.

“Many intersex children have been forced into male and female identities, when not medically necessary, which they later felt were incorrect, including unnecessary brutal surgery to give them stereotypical looking genitalia, often leaving them without sensation or function.”

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- A Florida woman said her love handles saved her life when she was shot entering an Atlantic City bar. Samantha Lynn Frazier said she heard two pops when she walked into Herman's Place early Saturday. The 35-year-old then felt pain and saw blood on her hand after she grabbed her left side. Atlantic City police said Frazier was an innocent bystander.

Detective Lt. Charles Love said the gunman was aiming for a man who escaped with a bullet hole in his down jacket.

The suspect remains at large.

Frazier told The Press of Atlantic City that 'I could have been dead. They said my love handles saved my life."

Frazier also told the newspaper that she had been "hollering" that she wanted to lose weight. She now said "I want to be as big as I can if it's going to stop a bullet."

Grand Prairie Police say they have arrested the man who raped an elderly woman and set her on fire Monday.

Grand Prairie Detective John Brimmer says officers from Grand Prairie and Fort Worth arrested Daniel Deshawn Neal Tuesday night.

Brimmer says on Tuesday a Grand Prairie Fire Department arson investigator saw a man who appeared to be going door-to-door in the same neighborhood where the woman was attacked.

The rape victim told police the man who attacked her Monday might have been selling magazines door-to-door.

The arson investigator called police, who caught up to the man and questioned him.  He told police enough information about the suspect to enable officers to get an arrest warrant.

The man also told police that the group of magazine sellers would be working in Fort Worth on Tuesday.

That day, police from the two departments set up a surveillance team at the Fort Worth location where the group of magazine sellers was to meet.

The officers identified the suspect and arrested him after a brief struggle, Brimmer said.

DNA samples will be taken from Neal and compared with evidence from the sexual assault exam.  Brimmer says if the DNA matches, police will charge Neal with first degree aggravated sexual assault.

A transgender New Yorker has filed a $10 million sex assault suit against an NFL player - and in a separate action is also suing the city, saying she was abused and humiliated by cops.

Angelina Mavilia's legal action against San Francisco 49ers cornerback Eric Green alleges he forcibly sodomized her.

The two met in a Scottsdale, Ariz., casino in early 2009 when Green still played for the Arizona Cardinals, the 38-year-old East Side woman says in papers filed in federal court in Florida, where Green was born and lives.

They went back to his condo, where Green, 27, assaulted her, she charges. He then got "extremely agitated and threatening," according to court documents, and warned: "This never happened. You'd better not tell."

In the local case, Mavilia says she was dehumanized after being arrested for trespassing in a Manhattan housing complex on Oct. 30, 2008.

A female cop twice demanded she take off her bra and panties and then peered at her genitals, according to court papers filed in Manhattan Federal Court.

"It's a girl!" the cop is claimed to have yelled.

At Manhattan Central Booking, a correction officer ordered Mavilia to strip yet again and put her in a cell with a man.

"You're not fooling me; I know you were not born a woman," the officer allegedly mocked. "I can see your plastic surgery."

Mavilia declined to comment on both cases Wednesday night. Green could not be reached.

A 16-year-old boy accused of shooting his girlfriend to death also shot himself in an attempt to make it look like someone else was responsible, prosecutors said.

Matthew D. DuBois has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Mikarah Sanders.

KOMO News normally does not identify juveniles accused of crimes, but prosecutors have charged DuBois as an adult.

According to court documents, DuBois was angry at Sanders because of a comment that an ex-boyfriend had left on her MySpace page.

The two were arguing at an apartment complex at 12445 Ambaum Boulevard SW on New Year's Eve, and Mikarah was shot once in the face.

Another girl who was in the apartment initially told police that the DuBois was not the gunman, but she later recanted her story and said she lied at DuBois' request because she was scared of him.

She eventually told investigators that she was in another room when she heard a single gun shot. She looked into the other room and saw DuBois on top of Mikarah, and he told her to call 911, the documents said.

The girl said DuBois then shot himself in the shoulder, told her to lie to police, and went to a different apartment.

Mikarah, who had been shot in the head, was rushed to Harborview Medical Center where she later died.

Neighbors have said that the couple argued constantly before the shooting.

DuBois has prior juvenile convictions for witness tampering, unlawful posession of a firearm, burglary, and auto theft.

He is currently in serious condition in the intensive care unit at Harborview and is scheduled to be arraigned January 13.

If convicted as charged, he could face up to 25 years in prison, prosecutors said.

A 19-year-old man accused of raping and slashing the throat of a Canton woman who had just paid him to shovel her sidewalk was ordered held without bond Tuesday morning, as police in Virginia questioned him about two rapes there. Donald D. Vaughan, of White Stone, Va., was arrested Monday and charged in the Baltimore attack, which occurred during the height of Saturday's snowstorm in the 800 block of S. Kenwood Ave. A Virginia newspaper reported Monday night that Vaughan was the "prime suspect" in two rapes that occurred in tiny Kilmarnock, Va., on Nov. 28 and Dec. 1. The Rappahannock Record quoted Lt. Tim Self, of the Lancaster County, Va., Sheriff's Office who said Vaughan had been under police surveillance for the past two weeks while they awaited the processing of forensic evidence.

Though now an adult, Vaughan was on juvenile supervision stemming from four crimes he committed in Maryland before age 18. He had been released from a residential facility in late September or early October and allowed to move to Virginia to live with his mother, according to a source who was not authorized to discuss the matter. As a juvenile, Vaughan's crimes included multiple burglaries, officials said at the bail review hearing. A source said one break-in occurred a block from Saturday's attack.

In the Baltimore incident, a man had been paid for shoveling and had left. Later, the 26-year-old victim was inside the kitchen and she heard a knock on a side door. This time, the man forced his way inside and grabbed a kitchen knife, then sexually assaulted her in the kitchen and in an upstairs bedroom, records show. During the assault, he cut her throat with the knife, causing a 5-inch gash that nipped her jugular, according to court documents. As she was bleeding, the man stole cash, a bank card and two cell phones. According to charging documents, the victim got on her computer, where she had been talking with a friend, and the friend called 911. When police arrived, the woman was leaning out of her second-floor window with a towel around her neck, trying to control the bleeding. She was transported to Johns Hopkins Hospital for surgery, and has been released.

Police tracked the stolen cell phone to an address in the 800 block of N. Linwood Ave., where they found Vaughan. According to police, he detailed the sexual assault for detectives and was charged with first-degree rape, attempted first-degree murder, and related charges. A preliminary court hearing was set for Jan. 19.

Darryl Jurkiewicz, president of the Canton Community Association, questioned why police didn't disseminate information about the incident and a suspect description sooner. "People tend to notice people they don't recognize," he said. "It just seems like a breakdown in communication."

Racial attacks like the ones behind the arrest of 32 suspects in Denver are part of a trend spreading across the country, gang experts said Saturday.

As part of the trend, black gang members videotape the assaults in trendy tourist districts and sell them on the underground market as entertainment.

"They knock a young white guy out with one blow to see if his knees will wobble and surround them and take their money," said the Rev. Leon Kelly, who runs a Denver gang-prevention program. "It's a joke."

Denver police announced the 32 arrests Friday after a months-long undercover investigation into what authorities said were racially motivated assaults and robberies in Denver, including in the Lower Downtown entertainment district.

A task force including Denver cops, FBI agents and prosecutors from District Attorney Mitch Morrissey's office identified 26 incidents since July in which the gangs assaulted or robbed white or Latino men. The offenders took wallets, iPods, cash and other small items.

Most of the suspects admitted they belonged to either the Rollin' 60s Crips gang or the Black Gangster Disciples gang.

Murray disagreed with Kelly that police only aggressively pursued the gangs after they started targeting whites.

"If a group of white supremacists were targeting blacks, we would go after them," he said.

Though robbery is a predominant motivation of the gang members, it is more complicated than that, Kelly said.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill features several provisions that human rights groups say would spur a witch hunt of homosexuals in the country:

• Gays and lesbians convicted of having gay sex would be sentenced, at minimum, to life in prison

• People who test positive for HIV may be executed

• Homosexuals who have sex with a minor, or engage in homosexual sex more than once, may also receive the death penalty

• The bill forbids the "promotion of homosexuality," which in effect bans organizations working in HIV and AIDS prevention

• Anyone who knows of homosexual activity taking place but does not report it would risk up to three years in prison

Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda under colonial-era laws. But the bill, introduced in October, is intended to put more teeth into prosecuting violators.

It applies even to Ugandans participating in same-sex acts in countries where such behavior is legal.

Four people have been arrested in Peru on suspicion of killing dozens of people in order to sell their fat and tissue for cosmetic uses in Europe.

The gang allegedly targeted people on remote roads, luring them with fake job offers before killing them and extracting their fat.

The liquidised product fetched $15,000 (£9,000) a litre and police suspect it was sold on to companies in Europe.

At least five other suspects, including two Italian nationals, remain at large.

Police said the gang could be behind the disappearances of up to 60 people in Peru's Huanuco and Pasco regions.

One of those arrested told police the ringleader had been killing people for their fat for more than three decades.

The gang has been referred to as the Pishtacos, after an ancient Peruvian legend of killers who attack people on lonely roads and murder them for their fat.

Human tissue

At a news conference in the capital, police showed reporters two bottles containing human body fat and images of one of the alleged victims.

One of the alleged killings is reported to have taken place in mid-September, with the person's body tissue removed for sale.

Cmdr Angel Toledo told Reuters news agency some of the suspects had "declared and stated how they murdered people with the aim being to extract their fat in rudimentary labs and sell it".

Police said they suspect the fat was sold to cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies in Europe, but have not confirmed any such connection.