Month: May 2018

The Kilauea volcano sent more lava into Hawaii communities Friday, a day after forcing more than 1,500 people to flee from their mountainside homes, and authorities detected high levels of sulfur gas that could threaten the elderly and people with breathing problems. After a week of earthquakes and warnings, the eruption that began Thursday threw lava into the sky from a crack in a road and sent another line of molten rock snaking through a forest. On Friday, the activity continued, with reports of lava spurting from volcanic vents on two streets. Areas downhill from the vents were at risk of being covered up. The community of Leilani Estates near the town of Pahoa on the Big Island appeared to be in the greatest danger. Authorities also ordered an evacuation of Lanipuna Gardens, a smaller, more rural subdivision directly to the east. But scientists said new vents could form, and it was impossible to know where. Civil defense officials cautioned the public about high levels of sulfur dioxide near the volcano and urged vulnerable people to leave immediately. Exposure to the gas can cause irritation or burns, sore throats, runny noses, burning eyes and coughing. Maija Stenback began to get nervous when she noticed cracks in the streets near her home. On Thursday, she shot video of the lava as it bubbled and splattered across a street about six blocks from her house. “You can feel it all the way into the core of your being,” she said. “It’s just …

WHO: Eat Less Saturated, Trans Fats to Curb Heart Disease

Adults and children should consume a maximum of 10 percent of their daily calories in the form of saturated fat such as meat and butter and one percent from trans fats to reduce the risk of heart disease, the World Health Organization said Friday. The draft recommendations, the first since 2002, are aimed at reducing non-communicable diseases, led by cardiovascular diseases, blamed for 72 percent of the 54.7 million estimated deaths worldwide every year, many before the age of 70. “Dietary saturated fatty acids and trans-fatty acids are of particular concern because high levels of intake are correlated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases,” Dr. Francesco Branca, Director of WHO’s Department of Nutrition for Health and Development, told reporters. The dietary recommendations are based on scientific evidence developed in the last 15 years, he added. The United Nations agency has invited public comments until June 1 on the recommendations, which it expects to finalize by year-end. Saturated fat is found in foods from animal sources such as butter, cow’s milk, meat, salmon and egg yolks, and in some plant-derived products such as chocolate, cocoa butter, coconut, palm and palm kernel oils. An active adult needs about 2,500 calories per day, Branca said. “So we are talking about 250 calories coming from saturated fat and that is approximately a bit less than 30 grams of saturated fat,” he said. That amount of fat could be found in 50 grams (1.76 oz) of butter, 130-150 grams of cheese with 30 percent fat, …

NASA Spacecraft Will Have Company All the Way to Mars

NASA’s next Mars explorer is going to have company all the way to the red planet: a couple of puny yet groundbreaking sidekicks. Named after the characters in the 2008 animated movie, the small satellites WALL-E and EVE are hitching a ride on the Atlas V rocket set to launch early Saturday morning from California with the Mars InSight lander. Similar in size to a briefcase or large cereal box, the satellites with pop out from the rocket’s upper stage following liftoff and hightail it to Mars, right behind InSight. It will be the first time little cube-shaped satellites, CubeSats as they’re known, set sail for deep space. The journey will span 6 1/2 months and 300 million miles (485 million kilometers). A brief look at the $18.5 million experiment tagging along with InSight: Mini sats Miniature satellites, or CubeSats, have been piggybacking on big-ticket space missions for well over a decade, providing relatively cheap and fast access to orbit for students and other out-of-the-mainstream experimenters. Until now, the hundreds of CubeSats have been confined to Earth orbit. That’s about to change with NASA’s Mars Cube One project, or MarCO. The European Space Agency, meanwhile, has its CubeSat sights on the moon. A recent competition yielded two winning proposals: a CubeSat to explore the moon’s far side from lunar orbit, another to probe a permanently shadowed crater near the moon’s south pole, also from lunar orbit. NASA is also looking to send CubeSats to the moon, as well as an …

Міжнародні резерви України зросли майже на чверть мільярда доларів – НБУ

05/04/2018 sellbiz

Міжнародні резерви України за квітень зросли на 229 мільйонів доларів США, повідомила прес-служба Національного банку України. У регуляторі зазначили, що резерви зросли на 1,3% і на 1 травня становили близько 18,421 мільярда доларів. «Основним джерелом поповнення резервів протягом квітня, як і в попередні місяці, була купівля Національним банком валюти на міжбанківському ринку. Тривале перевищення пропозиції валюти над попитом на неї на міжбанківському ринку дало Національному банку можливість і надалі викуповувати надлишок валюти з ринку для нарощування резервів без протидії зміцненню обмінного курсу гривні», – заявили в НБУ. У регуляторі повідомили, що у квітні Національний банк купив на міжбанківському ринку 326,7 мільйона доларів. Водночас Нацбанк продав 24 мільйони доларів за інтревенціями у формі запиту найкращого курсу. Крім того, згідно з повідомленням, у квітні до резервів надійшло 83,6 мільйона євро від розміщення урядом облігацій внутрішньої державної позики (ОВДП), деномінованих в іноземній валюті. «Водночас у квітні кошти з міжнародних резервів спрямовувалися переважно на здійснення платежів уряду з обслуговування та погашення державного та гарантованого державою боргу в іноземній валюті. Сума цих платежів у квітні становила 127,4 мільйона доларів. У тому числі 30,8 мільйона доларів було сплачено для обслуговування ОВДП, деномінованими в іноземній валюті», – заявили в НБУ. Відповідно до релізу регулятора, на обсяг резервів також вплинули переоцінка фінансових інструментів (зміна ринкової вартості, курсу гривні до іноземних валют) на суму 59,2 мільйона доларів та інші операції на суму 11,3 мільйона доларів. 5 січня Національний банк повідомив, що у 2017 році міжнародні резерви України зросли на 21 відсоток. Станом на 1 січня 2018 року вони становили понад …

US Adds Modest 164,000 Jobs; Unemployment Down

05/04/2018 selleco

U.S. employers stepped up hiring modestly in April, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent, evidence of the economy’s resilience amid the recent stock market chaos and anxieties about a possible trade war. Job growth amounted to a decent 164,000 last month, up from an upwardly revised 135,000 in March. The unemployment rate fell after having held at 4.1 percent for the prior six months largely because fewer people were searching for jobs. The overall unemployment rate is now the lowest since December 2000. The rate for African-Americans — 6.6 percent — is the lowest on record since 1972. Many employers say it’s difficult to find qualified workers. But they have yet to significantly bump up pay in most industries. Average hourly earnings rose 2.6 percent from a year ago. The pace of hiring has yet to be disrupted by dramatic global market swings, a recent pickup in inflation and the risk that the tariffs being pushed by President Donald Trump could provoke a trade war. Much of the economy’s strength, for the moment, comes from the healthy job market. The increase in people earning paychecks has bolstered demand for housing, even though fewer properties are being listed for sale. Consumer confidence has improved over the past year. And more people are shopping, with retail sales having picked up in March after three monthly declines. Workers in the private sector during the first three months of 2018 enjoyed their sharpest average income growth in 11 years, the Labor Department …

Rohingya Refugees Face Malnutrition

Each morning, in a small Bangladeshi kitchen on the edge of the world’s largest refugee camp, a group of cooks stir rice, lentils, spices, and vitamin powder in steaming cauldrons to serve to thousands of hungry Rohingya refugees. More than 700,000 ethnic Rohingya Muslims arrived in Bangladesh last year from neighboring Myanmar, escaping what the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing by Myanmar’s army, an allegation Myanmar denies. Upon arrival in Bangladesh, many of the refugees were destitute, starving after fleeing army attacks on their villages. But nearly nine months later, hunger persists for the Rohingya in Bangladesh, even though aid groups hold regular food distributions. As a result, many families depend on the hot meals handed out at this kitchen by the Action Against Hunger aid group in the town of Ukhiya. The group also provides biscuits to children to take home after their meal to further supplement their diets. One regular visitor to the kitchen is Abdu Sobee, who says he comes almost every day with his brother’s children. “I need money to buy fish, vegetables, and chili to cook,” he explains, while his two nieces scoop handfuls of yellow rice into their mouths. “I don’t have this. Where will I get it? So I brought my children here because they give food for free.” Despite the free lunches, not everyone is able to stay healthy. In the camps, one-fifth of Rohingya children younger than 5 are malnourished, with 12 percent suffering from severe stunting as a result …

Some Parents More Wary of Vaccines Than Diseases They Prevent

Dr. Paul Offit is an infectious disease specialist and an expert in vaccines. He’s been at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia since 1992. Since then he says not a year has gone by when he has not seen a child die from a vaccine-preventable disease. It’s largely, he says, because the parents chose not to vaccinate their child. Far from Philadelphia, along the rugged border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, health workers are desperately trying to vaccinate every child against polio so no child will ever again suffer the crippling effects of this disease. If they can complete this task, polio will be a disease of the past. Offit says the difference between parents in this mountainous border region of southcentral Asia and those in the U.S. is that in Pakistan and Afghanistan, people know the devastating consequences of polio. He says previous generations in the U.S. did, too. WAYCH: Some Parents More Wary of Vaccines Than the Diseases Vaccines Prevent “For my parents, who were children of the 1920s and 1930s, they saw diphtheria as a routine killer of teenagers. They saw polio as a common crippler of children and young adults, so you didn’t have to convince them to vaccinate me, my brother and sister.” Offit says parents in his generation were also quick to vaccinate their children. “I had measles. I had mumps. I had German measles (rubella). I had the chickenpox so I know what those diseases felt like, and it was miserable,” he said. 23 viruses, two …

Venezuela to Take Over Major Bank; 11 Execs Arrested

05/04/2018 selleco

Venezuela said on Thursday it would take over the country’s leading private bank, Banesco, for 90 days and announced the arrest of 11 top executives for “attacks” against the country’s rapidly depreciating bolivar currency. The detentions came on the heels of last month’s shock arrests of two Venezuelan executives working in the country for U.S. oil company Chevron Corp. Oil-rich Venezuela is suffering from hyperinflation and a steady collapse of the bolivar currency, which President Nicolas Maduro has attributed to an “economic war,” but critics blame on incompetence and failed socialist policies. Maduro’s foes say he is cracking down on the business sector to try to shore up support and halt price increases ahead of a controversial May 20 presidential election, which key opposition parties have boycotted as a sham. Chief Prosecutor Tarek Saab announced the arrests in a televised press conference, but did not provide evidence of wrongdoing or take any questions. “We have determined the [executives’] presumed responsibility for a series of irregularities, for aiding and concealing attacks against the Venezuelan currency with the aim of demolishing the Venezuelan currency,” said Saab, a former ruling party governor. State television late on Thursday broadcast a statement announcing the temporary takeover of Banesco, which the government said was designed to ensure the bank continues operating. The government also said it would be appointing a board of directors led by the country’s vice finance minister, Yomana Koteich. Banesco’s president, Juan Carlos Escotet, who lives in Spain, earlier blasted the arrests as “disproportionate” and said he was flying to Venezuela to try to free the 11 executives, who include Chief Executive Oscar Doval. “In the next few …

Ex-Volkswagen Boss Indicted in Emissions Scandal

A federal grand jury in Detroit has indicted former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn with conspiracy and wire fraud in the car builder’s scheme to rig diesel emissions tests. “If you try to deceive the United States, then you will pay a heavy price,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday. “The indictment unsealed today alleges that Volkswagen’s scheme to cheat its legal requirements went all the way to the top of the company.” Winterkorn is alleged to have conspired with other top Volkswagen bosses to defraud the U.S. government and consumers with false claims that the company was complying with the Clean Air Act. Volkswagen already admitted it installed devices on diesel models designed to turn on pollution control devices during emissions tests and turn them off when the car is driven on actual highways. Volkswagen was fined $2.5 billion and ordered to recall the affected cars. Winkerton is the ninth Volkswagen executive or employee to be charged. However, he currently lives in Germany, which has no extradition treaty with the United States, and is unlikely ever to see the inside of the U.S. courtroom. …

US Trade Deficit Narrows Sharply; Labor Market Tightening

The U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply in March as exports increased to a record high amid a surge in deliveries of commercial aircraft and soybeans, bolstering the economy’s outlook heading into the second quarter. While other data on Thursday showed a modest increase in new applications for jobless benefits last week, the number of Americans receiving unemployment aid fell to its lowest level since 1973, pointing to tightening labor market conditions. Wage growth is also rising, with hourly compensation accelerating in the first quarter, more evidence that inflation pressures are building. “The good news is that we are exporting more, but with the labor markets incredibly tight, labor costs are accelerating as well,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. “The rise in labor costs will undoubtedly factor into policymakers’ thinking when they meet again in June.” The Federal Reserve on Wednesday left interest rates unchanged. The Fed said policymakers expected “economic activity will expand at a moderate pace in the medium term and labor market conditions will remain strong.” The Commerce Department said the trade deficit tumbled 15.2 percent to $49.0 billion in March, the lowest level since September. The trade gap widened to $57.7 billion in February, which was the highest level since October 2008. March’s decline ended six straight monthly increases in the trade deficit. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the trade gap narrowing to $50.0 billion in March. The politically sensitive goods trade deficit with China dropped 11.6 percent to …

Chad Gets 6 Rhinos Nearly 50 Years After Losing the Species

05/03/2018 sellheal

Six critically endangered black rhinos are being transported from South Africa to Chad, restoring the species to the country in north-central Africa nearly half a century after it was wiped out there. African Parks, a Johannesburg-based conservation group, said Thursday that the rhinos will travel by air to Zakouma National Park, a reserve in Chad that it manages with the government. The group says the goal is to help the long-term survival of black rhinos and to restore biodiversity in Chad. It says there are fewer than 25,000 rhinos in the African wild, of which about 20 percent are black rhinos and the rest white rhinos. Most of the rhinos are in South Africa, though the population has been hit hard by poachers supplying horns to an illegal Asian market. …

South Korea Developing Economic Projects for North Korea

South Korea is looking into developing and financing economic projects with North Korea that could take effect if a nuclear deal is reached with the United States. South Korean Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said on Wednesday the government was “internally carrying out preparations” to organize, finance and implement possible inter-Korea projects. But he also emphasized that Seoul would first seek support from the international community for any North Korean development projects, and would only proceed if the U.S. -North Korea summit, expected to be held in late May or June, produces a joint denuclearization agreement. North Korea is under tough sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council for its nuclear weapons and missiles tests, including accelerated efforts in the last two years to develop a long-range nuclear missile that could potentially target the U.S. mainland. The international sanctions ban an estimated 90 percent of the country’s external trade. Seeking sanctions relief is considered a key motivating factor in North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s diplomatic pivot this year to suspend further provocative missile and nuclear tests, and to engage in talks to dismantle his nuclear arsenal. But easing sanctions would make it more difficult to enforce the North’s denuclearization promises. “Once the sanctions are lifted, North Korea will gain autonomy over its trade, and considering its low labor costs and skilled workforce, I think the North Korean economy would gain power again,” said Shin Beom-chul, the director of Center for Security and Unification at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies …

Analysts Pessimistic About Progress in US-China Trade Talks

A high-level U.S. trade delegation has begun talks with Chinese officials in Beijing as Washington tries to address deep concerns about China’s economic policies. The meeting is seen by some as a positive step, as the two sides attempt to avoid the possible outbreak of a trade war. Analysts say it is unlikely their differences will be resolved during the meetings but a decision to keep talking would be welcome progress. President Donald Trump said on Twitter U.S. officials are “trying to negotiate a level playing field on trade.” Raymond Yeung, a senior economist for Greater China at the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, says if the two sides can at least agree to keep talking with each other that would be big progress. “I think it is too demanding to expect that both sides can come up with an agreement or an announcement or sign a deal,” Yeung said. “But if they are able to promise that they are willing to sit down and continue the dialogue and try and resolve their differences, at least that would signal that the relationship between the two governments is warming up.” Differences over trade policy and market access have been a persistent concern for the United States and other foreign investors in China. In recent weeks, the debate has become even more heated with President Trump threatening to slap a long $50 billion list of tariffs on Chinese goods to punish Beijing for what his administration calls its unfair …

Astronomers Given Detailed Map of 1.7 Billion Stars

05/03/2018 sellheal

The European Space Agency has released an updated catalogue of more than 1.7 billion stars in our galaxy, as well as other celestial bodies, such as exoplanets, asteroids and quasars. The new data gives astronomers an unprecedented three-dimensional map for studying the origin of the universe and searching for habitable planets. VOA’s George Putic has more. …

Trump to Meet with Carmakers on Trade, Pollution

President Trump plans to meet next week with leaders from U.S. and foreign carmakers on trade and changes to emission standards. “When the White House wants to meet with us about our sector and policy, we welcome the opportunity,” Alliance of American Automobile Manufacturers spokeswoman Gloria Bergquist said Wednesday. The time and agenda of the talks are still to be announced. But the car builders want to make their concerns about possible changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement known to the president. They are also expected to talk about Trump administration plans to revise strict Obama-era emission standards for U.S. cars and light trucks. Seventeen states and Washington, D.C., are suing the administration over the plans, accusing the Environmental Protection Agency of breaking the law. “This is about health. This is about life and death,” California Governor Jerry Brown said Tuesday. “Pollutants coming out of tailpipes does permanent damage to children. The only way we’re going to overcome this is by reducing emissions.” Brown accused Trump of wanting people to buy more gasoline and create more pollution. The lawsuit argues the EPA acted arbitrarily and violated the Clean Air Act when it decided emission standards were too high. In 2012, former president Barack Obama ordered emission standards to be raised to about 21 kilometers per liter of gasoline by 2025. The goal was to cut pollution and make cars and small trucks more energy efficient. The EPA is seeking to freeze fuel efficiency requirements at 2020 levels until …

IMF Censures Venezuela

The International Monetary Fund censured Venezuela on Wednesday for failing to hand over essential economic data to the fund. “The [Executive] Board noted that adequate data provision was an essential first step to understanding Venezuela’s economic crisis and identifying possible solutions,” an IMF statement said. The board is giving Venezuela another six months to comply or face possible expulsion from the IMF. “The Fund stands ready to work constructively with Venezuela toward resolving its economic crisis when it is prepared to re-engage with the Fund,” the IMF said. Venezuela has not responded to the IMF’s action. But President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government has long declined to provide data to the IMF. It regards the IMF as a U.S. tool and part of a Washington-inspired economic war against Venezuela. Corruption and the collapse of world energy prices has led to an economic calamity in oil-rich Venezuela, including hyperinflation and severe shortages of many basic goods. …

Hawking’s Last Physics Paper Argues for a ‘Simpler’ Cosmos

05/02/2018 sellheal

Weeks after his death, physicist Stephen Hawking has delivered his last thoughts about the nature of the cosmos, and he says it may be simpler than often believed. Well, simpler if you understand theoretical physics, anyway. It remains incomprehensible for the rest of us. A paper that outlines his view, written with Thomas Hertog of the University of Leuven in Belgium before Hawking’s death in March, has been published by the Journal of High Energy Physics. Hertog had announced the new theory last year at a conference celebrating Hawking’s 75th birthday. The University of Cambridge, where Hawking worked, announced the publication on Wednesday. Here’s a very simplified version of what it says. First, some background. Scientists believe our universe sprang into existence with the Big Bang, followed by an unimaginably rapid expansion known as inflation. Within our observable universe, inflation ended long ago. But some ideas of inflation say it never stops, persisting in other regions of the cosmos forever. This eternal inflation produces a “multiverse,” a collection of pocket universes of which our own universe is just one. There may be an infinite number of these pocket universes. If they’re all very different, then how typical is the universe we live in, where scientists make their observations? That’s a key question for understanding the fundamental laws of nature, and finding a way to estimate what types of universes are probable is a big challenge, said physics professor David Kaiser of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Many people have tried …

‘Amazing China’ Documentary More Fiction Than Fact

A Chinese company that manufactured Ivanka Trump shoes and has been accused of serious labor abuses is being celebrated in a blockbuster propaganda film for extending China’s influence around the globe. The state-backed documentary “Amazing China” portrays the Huajian Group as a beneficent force spreading prosperity — in this case, by hiring thousands of Ethiopians at wages a fraction of what they’d have to pay in China. But in Ethiopia, Huajian workers told The Associated Press they work without safety equipment for pay so low they can barely make ends meet. “I’m left with nothing at the end of the month,” said Ayelech Geletu, 21, who told the AP she earns a base monthly salary of 1,400 Birr ($51) at Huajian’s factory in Lebu, outside Addis Ababa. “Plus, their treatment is bad. They shout at us whenever they want.” With epic cinematography, “Amazing China” — produced by China Central Television and the state-owned China Film Group Co. Ltd. — articulates a message of how China would like to be seen as it pursues President Xi Jinping’s vision of a globally resurgent nation, against a reality that doesn’t always measure up. China’s ruling Communist Party recently announced it would take direct control of major broadcasters and assume regulatory power over everything from film and TV to books and news. As the party deepens its ability to cultivate “unity of thought” among citizens, “Amazing China” demonstrates the scope of China’s propaganda machine, which not only crafted a stirring documentary …

Tomorrow’s Jobs Require Impressing a Bot with Quick Thinking

When Andrew Chamberlain started in his job four years ago in the research group at jobs website Glassdoor.com, he worked in a programming language called Stata. Then it was R. Then Python. Then PySpark. “My dad was a commercial printer and did the same thing for 30 years. I have to continually stay on stuff,” said Chamberlain, who is now the chief economist for the site. Chamberlain already has one of the jobs of the future — a perpetually changing, shifting universe of work that requires employees to be critical thinkers and fast on their feet. Even those training for a specific field, from plumbing to aerospace engineering, need to be nimble enough to constantly learn new technologies and apply their skills on the fly. When companies recruit new workers, particularly for entry-level jobs, they are not necessarily looking for knowledge of certain software. They are looking for what most consider soft skills: problem solving, effective communication and leadership. They also want candidates who show a willingness to keep learning new skills. “The human being’s role in the workplace is less to do repetitive things all the time and more to do the non-repetitive tasks that bring new kinds of value,” said Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce in the United States. So, while specializing in a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) field can seem like an easy path to a lucrative first job, employers are telling colleges: You are producing engineers, but …

Female Cabbies Hit Nairobi’s Roads as Taxi-Hailing Apps Mushroom

With their manicured nails, immaculate makeup and matching handbags and stilettos, you would be forgiven for mistaking the five women seated in the cafe of the upscale Nairobi hotel for a group of senior female executives. Sipping white hot chocolate from delicate porcelain cups, they discuss their long working hours and challenges in finding time with their children, and share strategies on networking and dealing with difficult clients. But these Kenyan women aren’t company directors, finance professionals or corporate lawyers — they are part of a new breed of women who are breaking into the male-dominated taxi sector and hitting Nairobi’s roads as e-cabbies. “Taxi driving is not something I would have considered before, but after driving for a taxi app service, I think it’s a really good job for women,” said Lydia Muchiri, 29, in a knee-length fitted white dress with floral print. “It’s convenient, easy and safe — much better than sitting at home and depending on handouts,” she said, as the other women, in their 20s and 30s, nodded in agreement. As taxi-hailing apps mushroom to fill a hole in Nairobi’s poor public transport system, rising numbers of women are taking up jobs as drivers — citing benefits such as flexible working hours, the ability to select passengers, and guaranteed payment. Online female cabbies currently make up only about 3 percent of the city’s estimated 12,000 e-taxi drivers, but industry officials say their numbers are growing exponentially. Little Cabs, one of Nairobi’s popular ride-sharing platforms, and the only app offering riders the choice of a male or female driver, has witnessed a 13-fold increase in the number of female drivers over …

British Children Learn the ABCs of FGM to Help End Harmful Practice

05/02/2018 sellheal

As teacher Tanya Mathiason flicked through a slideshow to display diagrams of male and female genitalia to primary school children in northwest London, no one flinched or giggled. Instead, the students eagerly discussed the meaning of the words: female, genital and mutilation. “Break those words down: What does female mean? What does genital mean? What does mutilation mean?” said Mathiason, the head of pastoral care at Norbury School in the culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhood of Harrow. “It means when someone cuts off stuff?” replied one student. “Harm?” said another. By the time they leave Norbury School, all 640 students — both boys and girls — will have learned about female genital mutilation (FGM), a ritual that usually involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia including the clitoris. An estimated 137,000 women and girls in England and Wales have undergone FGM, according to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). FGM can cause chronic pain, menstrual problems, recurrent urinary tract infections, cysts and infertility. Some girls hemorrhage to death or die from infections. It can also cause fatal childbirth complications in later life. Young age As FGM is mostly carried out between infancy and age 15, school principal Louise Browning said she wanted the students to start learning about it in the third year, at about seven years old. “I became more aware that FGM was happening to girls at a much younger age than I thought,” Browning told Reuters. “Who’s to say …

US Cigarette Makers Ordered to Display New Warnings