Female genital mutilation victim was ‘aged just seven’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23001119

A girl of seven was the youngest victim of female genital mutilation (FGM) treated by the NHS in the past two years, according to new data.

Some 1,700 women and girls were treated by specialist FGM clinics but this masks a bigger problem says the NSPCC.

A UK-wide helpline to protect girls at risk of ritual cutting, practised by some African, Middle Eastern and Asian communities, goes live on Monday.

The victims “are hidden behind a wall of silence”, said Lisa Harker of NSPCC.

The helpline is run by NSPCC child protection experts who have had training and advice from experts who work with women and girls who have undergone this form of ritual mutilation.

Extreme pain

The charity describes the practice as “illegal and life-threatening” and says that it results in extreme pain as well as physical and psychological problems that can continue into adulthood.

Female genital mutilation, sometimes known as female circumcision has been illegal in the UK since 1985 – but still continues in secret, often carried out without anesthetic.

Some communities from parts of Africa and the Middle East, from both Muslim and Christian traditions, believe it is a necessary part of becoming a woman, that it reduces female sex drive and therefore the chances of sex outside marriage.

Sometimes girls are sent abroad to have it done. Sometimes it is done in the UK.

It involves the partial or total removal of the female genital organs, sometimes only leaving a small hole for urination or menstruation. The NSPCC says that victims are usually aged between four and 10 but some are younger.

Comfort Momoh, a midwife at Guys and St Thomas’s Hospital in London, collated the figures from the specialist clinics.

She told BBC news that many women are not identified until they become pregnant and are examined by medical staff.

Others suffer recurrent urinary tract infections and abdominal pain.

“Many people are not aware they have had it done as it was carried out when they were babies.”

‘Anonymous’

The NSPCC says the free 24-hour helpline is aimed at anyone concerned that a child’s welfare is at risk because of female genital mutilation, particularly teachers and medical staff, but they are also hoping that relatives will come forward.

They stress that callers can remain anonymous but information on children at risk will be passed to police and social services.

“We want this helpline to be a safe space for families who are against their daughter having female genital mutilation but feel powerless to stop it”

Lisa Harker NSPCC

Ms Harker said: “There is also a huge pressure within these communities to keep quiet about female genital mutilation, with some people even being threatened with violence if they speak out.

“We want this helpline to be a safe space for families who are against their daughter having female genital mutilation but feel powerless to stop it. Anyone from these communities can speak to us to get advice and help about female genital mutilation without fear of reprisal.”

Some 20,000 girls in England and Wales are thought to be at risk, according to government estimates, but there is a lack of accurate figures.

Ms Momoh hopes that another benefit of the helpline will be to “generate more robust information and data”.

Crime prevention minister Jeremy Browne described the helpline as “a vital step towards eradicating this horrendous crime”.

“It builds on the work we have already undertaken through our violence against women and girls action plan to raise awareness, identify potential victims and prevent this form of child abuse.”

Det Ch Supt Keith Niven of the Metropolitan Police Service added: “This practice cannot be disguised as being part of any culture, it is child abuse and offenders will be relentlessly pursued.”

Countries where FGM is most common
Name of country	Prevalence, 35-39 years	Prevalence, 15-19 years
Djibouti 94.7% 89.5% Egypt 96.4% 80.7% Eritrea 92.6% 78.3% Gambia 79.5% 79.9% Guinea 98.6% 89.3% Mali 84.9% 84.7% Sierra Leone 96.4% 75.5% Somalia 98.9% 96.7%

Massive submerged structure stumps Israeli archaeologists

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/05/23/massive-submerged-structure-stumps-israeli-archaeologists/

The massive circular structure appears to be an archaeologists dream: a recently discovered antiquity that could reveal secrets of ancient life in the Middle East and is just waiting to be excavated.

It’s thousands of years old — a conical, manmade behemoth weighing hundreds of tons, practically begging to be explored.

The problem is — it’s at the bottom of the biblical Sea of Galilee. For now, at least, Israeli researchers are left stranded on dry land, wondering what finds lurk below.

‘The bottom line is we don’t know when it’s from, we don’t know what it’s connected to, we don’t know its function.’

– Dani Nadel, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa

The monumental structure, made of boulders and stones with a diameter of 230 feet, emerged from a routine sonar scan in 2003. Now archaeologists are trying to raise money to allow them access to the submerged stones.

“It’s very enigmatic, it’s very interesting, but the bottom line is we don’t know when it’s from, we don’t know what it’s connected to, we don’t know its function,” said Dani Nadel, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa who is one of several researchers studying the discovery. “We only know it is there, it is huge and it is unusual.”

Archaeologists said the only way they can properly assess the structure is through an underwater excavation, a painstakingly slow process that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. And if an excavation were to take place, archaeologists said they believed it would be the first in the Sea of Galilee, an ancient lake that boasts historical remnants spanning thousands of years and is the setting of many Bible scenes.

In contrast, Israeli researchers have carried out many excavations in the Mediterranean and Red Seas.

Much of the researchers’ limited knowledge about this structure comes from the sonar scan a decade ago.

Initial dives shortly after that revealed a few details. In an article in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology published earlier this year, Nadel and fellow researchers disclosed it was asymmetrical, made of basalt boulders and that “fish teem around the structure and between its blocks.”

The cone-shaped structure is found at a depth of between three and nine and 40 feet beneath the surface, about 1,600 feet from the sea’s southwestern shore. Its base is buried under sediment.

The authors conclude the structure is man-made, made of stones that originated nearby, and it weighs about 60,000 tons. The authors write it “is indicative of a complex, well-organized society, with planning skills and economic ability.”

The rest is a mystery.

Yitzhak Paz, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority who is involved in the project, said that based on sediment buildup, it is between 2,000 and 12,000 years old, a vast range that tells little about it. Based on other sites and artifacts found in the region, Paz places the site’s origin some time during the 3rd millennium B.C., or about 5,000 years ago, although he admits the timeframe is just a guess.

“The period is hard for us to determine. No scientific work was carried out there, no excavations, no surveys. We have no artifacts from the structure,” Paz said.

Archaeologists were also cautious about guessing the structure’s purpose. They said possibilities include a burial site, a place of worship or even a fish nursery, which were common in the area, but they said they wanted to avoid speculation because they have so little information.

It’s not even clear if the structure was built on shore when the sea stood at a low level, or if it was constructed underwater. Paz reckons it was built on land, an indication of the sea’s low level at the time.

In order to fill in the blanks, archaeologists hope to inspect the site underwater, despite the expense and the complexities.

Nadel noted that working underwater demands not only a skill such as scuba diving, but also labor-intensive excavations that are particularly difficult in the Sea of Galilee, which already has low visibility and where any digging can unleash a cloud of sediment and bury what’s just been uncovered.

Also, divers can remain under water only for a limited amount of time every day and must choose the best season that can provide optimal conditions for excavating.

“Until we do more research, we don’t have much more to add,” Nadel said. “It’s a mystery, and every mystery is interesting.”

Riots grip Stockholm suburbs after police shooting

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22622909

Rioters have lit fires and stoned emergency services in the suburbs of Stockholm for the third night in a row after a man was shot dead by police.

Incidents were reported in at least nine suburbs of the Swedish capital and police made eight arrests.

On Sunday night, more than 100 cars were set alight, Swedish media report.

Police in the deprived, largely immigrant suburb of Husby shot a man dead last week after he reportedly threatened to kill them with a machete.

The founder of a local youth group told Swedish media the riots were a reaction to “police brutality”.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told reporters on Tuesday that Sweden would not be intimidated by rioters.

‘Opportunistic’

On Tuesday night, cars were torched in western and southern Stockholm, and stones were thrown at police officers and firefighters. One area affected, Rinkeby, saw similar rioting in 2010.

Kjell Lindgren of the Stockholm police told Aftonbladet newspaper that the unrest had spread from the original rioting in Husby.

“It feels like people are taking the opportunity in other areas because of the attention given to Husby,” he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Reinfeldt said: “We’ve had two nights with great unrest, damage, and an intimidating atmosphere in Husby and there is a risk it will continue.

“We have groups of young men who think that that they can and should change society with violence. Let’s be clear: this is not okay. We cannot be ruled by violence.”

More than 80% of Husby’s 12,000 or so inhabitants are from an immigrant background, and most are from Turkey, the Middle East and Somalia.

Mr Reinfeldt said the situation in the district had been improving in recent years, with more jobs being created and a falling crime rate.

‘Monkey’ slur

However, local people accused the police of racism.

Rami al-Khamisi, a law student and founder of the youth organisation Megafonen, told the Swedish edition of online newspaper The Local that he had been insulted racially by police. Teenagers, he said, had been called “monkeys”.

He said the crowd was reacting to a “growing marginalisation and segregation in Sweden over the past 10, 20 years” from both a class and a race perspective.

Justice Minister Beatrice Ask said anyone who felt mistreated by police should file a report.

An investigation is under way into the shooting of a man, 69, last Monday after police were called out to a home in Husby where the man was allegedly brandishing a machete.

Police say they tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the man after learning a woman was inside the flat along with him. They then stormed the flat.

France Probes 3 Suspected Cases of SARS-Like Virus

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/suspected-cases-sars-related-virus-france-19148703

French health officials said Friday they are investigating three suspected cases of a deadly new respiratory virus related to SARS, in people who had close contact in the hospital with France’s only confirmed case.

Beatrice Degrugillers, a spokeswoman for the regional health agency in France’s Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, said a nurse at the hospital where the man was hospitalized in late April has herself been under watch at the hospital in Douai since Thursday night.

A doctor and a former hospital roommate who had each been in contact with the first patient also remain hospitalized. Test results are expected later Friday.

If confirmed, the additional cases would heighten concerns about the virus’ ability to spread easily between people. Health authorities have previously said the new coronavirus has spread in limited circumstances between people in very close contact, such as relatives taking care of family members.

In 2003, the spread of SARS in hospitals in Asia ultimately sparked a global outbreak. Officials consider any spread of a new virus in hospitals to be the first sign it is gaining the ability to infect humans easily.

On Wednesday authorities announced the 65-year-old Frenchman was France’s first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus, which has killed 18 people since being identified last year in the Middle East.

The patient fell ill after returning from a nine-day vacation in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates as part of a package tour, the Health Ministry said.

The man, whose identity was not released, returned from Dubai on April 17. He was hospitalized with respiratory problems in the northern French city of Valenciennes on April 23, and transferred to a more advanced facility in Douai on April 29.

Paris’ Pasteur Institute analyzed the man’s virus and confirmed that it is a novel coronavirus.

Since September 2012, the World Health Organization has been informed of 30 confirmed cases of the virus, and 18 of the patients have died. Cases have emerged in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Qatar, Britain and Germany, and health officials say the virus has likely already spread from person to person in some circumstances.

Since the virus emerged last year, European authorities have put in place monitoring measures. In France, 20 people have already been examined for suspected cases of the virus, but the other 19 turned up negative, Health Minister Marisol Touraine said.

The patient who traveled to Dubai is the only positive case. His family members have been tested and are not infected.