When she was 13 years old, Khatira's stepmother gave her the bad news: It was too expensive to keep her, so she would have to marry a cousin living in Kabul.
"They treated me well for the first month, but then they started beating me all the time," she says of her new in-laws.
Khatira, who goes by one name, says her husband was mentally ill and she fell prey to his brothers, who tried to force her into prostitution. She resisted.
Protesters are expected to fill and surround the Capitol in Madison, Wis., again Monday, the seventh day of demonstrations against Gov. Scott Walker's plan to increase health care and pension contributions by public employees while eliminating most of their collective bargaining rights.
Senate Democrats remain out of state to try to thwart a vote on the bill.
Earlier this month, NASA's Kepler Mission announced it had found 54 planets orbiting stars in so-called "habitable zones" in our galaxy, where the climate could be suitable for liquid water.
After the planets were found, NASA alerted the SETI Institute (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) of their locations. The institute's scientists started listening to those planets, and while they haven't heard any intelligent life yet, there's plenty of other noise to be heard in space.
The TV game show Jeopardy! experimented this week with IBM's latest version of artificial intelligence, "Watson," which destroyed its flesh-and-blood competition.
Could Watson be coming next for our jobs in radiology or the law?
Computer programmer and writer Martin Ford says he sees a future where artificial intelligence will take over many high-paying knowledge professions. He uses the example of radiology.
Some reports from Libya say that violence between police and protesters has left more than 200 people dead and many more injured. In the Egyptian capital, Cairo, a small group gathered outside the Libyan Embassy in solidarity with the demonstrators.
