Month: February 2019

F.A. Cole was 11 when her stepmother told her to dress up for a special occasion near her hometown of Freetown, Sierra Leone. It was, instead, a traumatic occasion, Cole recalls 34 years later. Her stepmother turned her over to a small group of women, who led her into a forest and bound and blindfolded her. Then someone put a razor blade to her genitals. “Two or four of the women held me down. They spread my legs open and pinned me down, and then the woman who was the cutter, she sat on my chest,” Cole recounts. “As she began to cut my clitoris, I began to fight and scream and wriggle under her, just looking for somebody to help me, somebody to come to my rescue.” No one came then. But the United Nations has been working to eradicate female genital mutilation. To raise awareness, the U.N. since 2003 has sponsored an International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM to raise awareness. The annual observance was on Wednesday. FGM is widespread in parts of Africa and also practiced here in the United States. The procedure has sparked a global clash between those who define it as a cultural tradition and those who say it’s a dangerous ritual that should end. Lingering questions Cole recalls days of excruciating pain and years of wondering why she was cut. “When I came to America and I started doing research, and I started talking about my story, that’s when I realized …

Female Genital Mutilation Occurs in the United States

The United Nations has declared Feb. 6 International Zero Tolerance Day for Female Genital Mutilation. Contrary to popular perception, female genital mutilation, or FGM, is relatively widespread in the United States as well. Indeed, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 500,000 women and girls have either undergone, or are at risk of undergoing the procedure. Most, but not all, are immigrants to the U.S. In November, a federal judge declared a 1996 federal law banning FGM unconstitutional. To find out more, VOA’s Adam Phillips spoke with Ghada Khan, coordinator of the U.S. End FGM/C Network. That’s an umbrella group of 26 grassroots American groups fighting to end the practice. Here is a transcript of the interview. Phillips: What are the main ethnic or demographic groups that practice FGM in America today? Khan: Female genital mutilation is something that cuts across socioeconomic status, different religions, different cultures and different areas. There is no one set group that actually performs it. But the main underlying factor is control of female sexuality. There is a lasting impact on women when they are physically harmed to control their sexuality, but also the messaging (is) that their sexuality is not something to be celebrated, and that there needs to be some control over their own bodies. Phillips: What does female genital mutilation actually involve for a woman, physically? Khan: In come cases, the entire outer and inner lips of the vagina are cut and the clitoris is also removed. …

Trump Taps World Bank Critic David Malpass to Lead It

President Donald Trump says Treasury Department official David Malpass is his choice to lead the World Bank. Trump introduced Malpass on Wednesday as the “right person to take on this incredibly important job.” Malpass is a sharp critic of the 189-nation lending institution. Malpass says he’s honored by the nomination. He says a key goal will be to implement changes to the bank that he and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin helped negotiate, and to ensure that women achieve full participation in developing economies. Malpass would succeed Jim Yong Kim, who departed in January three years before his term was to end. Other candidates will likely be nominated for the post by the bank’s member countries. A final decision on a new president will be up to the bank’s board. …

Last Year Was Fourth Hottest on Record: Outlook Sizzling: UN

Last year was the fourth warmest on record and the outlook is for more sizzling heat approaching levels that most governments view as dangerous for the Earth, a U.N. report showed on Wednesday. Weather extremes in 2018 included wildfires in California and Greece, drought in South Africa and floods in Kerala, India. Record levels of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, trap ever more heat. Average global surface temperatures were 1.0 degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times in 2018, the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said, based on data from U.S., British, Japanese and European weather agencies. “The long-term temperature trend is far more important than the ranking of individual years, and that trend is an upward one,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement. “The 20 warmest years on record have been in the past 22 years.” To combat warming, almost 200 governments adopted the Paris climate agreement in 2015 to phase out the use of fossil fuels and limit the rise in temperatures to 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times while “pursuing efforts” for 1.5C (2.7F). “The impacts of long-term global warming are already being felt – in coastal flooding, heat waves, intense precipitation and ecosystem change,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Last year, the United States alone suffered 14 weather and climate disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion each, led by hurricanes and wildfires, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said. NOAA and NASA contribute …

Процес монетизації субсидій запустять з 1 березня – рішення уряду

Готівкою будуть виплачувати субсидії тим домогосподарствам, яким субсидія призначена на поточний опалювальний сезон – міністр соціальної політики …

Mnuchin: Powell and Trump Had ‘Productive’ Meeting

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that President Donald Trump had a “quite productive” dinner with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. He says they discussed a wide range of subjects, from the state of the economy to the Super Bowl and Tiger Woods’ golf game. Talking to reporters at the White House, Mnuchin said that Trump was very engaged during the casual dinner Monday night. It took place in the White House residence and marked the first time Powell and Trump have met since Powell took office as Fed chairman a year ago. Mnuchin said that Powell’s comments were consistent with what he has been saying publicly about the economy. The Fed said in a statement that Powell did not discuss the future course of interest rates. …

Algerian Brain Drain is Pre-election Headache for Government

No matter who wins Algeria’s presidential election, 29-year-old cardiologist Moumen Mohamed plans to seek his fortune elsewhere. He is one of a growing number of young, educated Algerians who are looking for work in Europe or the Gulf to escape the low salaries imposed by a state-dominated economy at home. The exodus of doctors, engineers and other highly skilled workers is a headache for a government hoping to engage with its largely youthful electorate ahead of the vote on April 18. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 81, has not said if he will seek a fifth term, although the ruling FLN party, labor unions and business leaders are urging him on. For young professionals, the question is scarcely relevant. Many feel disconnected from an elite populated by the veterans of Algeria’s 1954-1962 war of independence from France, an era they only know about from their grandparents. They want to pursue their careers but feel discouraged by a system that offers low-paid jobs and little opportunity to better themselves. “I have already done my paperwork to migrate,” said Moumen, the cardiologist, who works at a state hospital. “I am waiting for a response.” Nearly 15,000 Algerian doctors work in France now and 4,000 submitted applications to leave their home country last year, according to official figures. The government does not accept all the blame. “The press has exaggerated the phenomenon… it is a problem for all Algerians, not just the government,” Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said in response to a reporter’s question about …

UN Calls for Ending Female Genital Mutilation by 2030

Wednesday marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. Coinciding with the day, the United Nations is calling for action to eliminate the procedure by 2030. The U.N. estimates at least 200 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to female genital mutilation, a procedure that partially or totally removes female genital organs. In addition, more than 3 million girls between infancy and age 15 are at risk of being subjected to the harmful practice every year. While FGM mainly occurs in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, it is a global problem, with some migrant communities carrying on the traditional practice in Western countries. The World Health Organization says FGM has no medical justification and leads to long-term physical, psychological and social consequences. WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic says awareness of the harmful effects of FGM is growing and progress is being made toward banning it in some communities. He tells VOA that given the rate of population growth in countries where FGM is prevalent, action must be accelerated to reduce the number of girls at risk of undergoing the procedure. “There was an analysis that was done by our colleagues in UNFPA [United Nations Population Fund] estimating that if female genital mutilation continues to be practiced at current levels, 68 million more girls will be subjected to FGM by 2030,” Jasarevic said. World leaders overwhelmingly backed the elimination of female genital mutilation by 2030 as one of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development …

Patient at Pennsylvania Hospital Being Tested for Ebola

A patient is being tested for Ebola at a hospital in Philadelphia, although officials don’t believe the patient has the potentially deadly illness. Penn Medicine says preliminary testing at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania indicates the person has another condition. They did not release the patient’s name. Officials say the testing is being done “in an abundance of caution” because the patient met screening criteria for Ebola. They say it’s unknown if the patient had traveled to a location that has the disease or came in contact with someone who does. An Ebola outbreak was declared just over six months ago in the eastern part of Congo. It’s the African country’s 10th outbreak and the world’s second largest recorded. WPVI-TV in Philadelphia was the first to report the patient was being tested. …

Світовий банк продовжить підтримувати Україну фінансово – уряд

«Україна виходить на сталий підхід у впровадженні реформ, і ми продовжуємо підтримувати вас» – Мюллер на зустрічі з Гройсманом …

Вартість долара залишиться на рівні нижче ніж 27 гривень – курс НБУ на 7 лютого

Вартість долара залишиться на рівні 26 гривень 96 копійок. Такий курс Національний банк України встановив на 7 лютого. Востаннє ціна долара була нижче ніж 27 гривень 9 серпня. Вартість долара стосовно гривні знижується з 28 січня. Тоді його ціна була на рівні 27 гривень 81 копійки. Аналітики вказують як на одну з причин зміцнення гривні на успішне розміщення Міністерством фінансів України облігацій внутрішньої державної позики; 5 лютого цих цінних паперів продали майже на 6,7 мільярда гривень, пише профільне видання «Мінфін». Національний банк пояснює тренд на зміцнення гривні також стабільними надходженнями експортної виручки. …

Долар впав нижче від 27 гривень – НБУ

На українському міжбанківському валютному ринку триває стрімке зміцнення української валюти. За результатами торгів станом на 12:00 6 лютого Національний банк України оприлюднив довідковий курс, який становить 26 гривень 96 копійок за долар США. Офіційний курс регулятор оприлюднює кожного робочого дня після 16:00, але зазвичай він незначно відрізняється від довідкового значення. Таким чином, 6 лютого гривня оновила максимум щодо долара. Востаннє курс на рівні 26 гривень 96 копійок фіксувався 9 серпня 2018 року. Пікового значення 28 гривень 39 копійок долар сягнув 30 листопада 2018 року. Відтоді американська валюта втратила понад 1 гривню 40 копійок. Аналітики вказують як на одну з причин зміцнення гривні на успішне розміщення міністерством фінансів України облігацій внутрішньої державної позики, 5 лютого цих цінних паперів продали майже на 6,7 мільярда гривень, пише профільне видання «Мінфін». Національний банк пояснює тренд на зміцнення гривні також стабільними надходженнями експортної виручки. …

Rwanda Signs $400M Deal to Produce Methane Gas from ‘Killer Lake’

Rwanda said on Tuesday it had signed a $400 million deal to produce bottled gas from Lake Kivu, which emits such dense clouds of methane it is known as one of Africa’s “Killer Lakes.” The project by Gasmeth Energy, owned by U.S. and Nigerian businessmen and Rwandans, would suck gas from the lake’s deep floor and bottle it for use as fuel. This should, in turn, help prevent toxic gas bubbling to the surface. The seven-year deal, signed on Friday, was announced on Tuesday. Rwanda already has two companies that extract gas from Lake Kivu to power electricity plants. Clare Akamanzi, chief executive of the Rwanda Development Board, told Reuters bottled methane would help cut local reliance on wood and charcoal, the fuels most households and tea factories use in the East African nation of 12 million people. “We expect to have affordable gas which is environmentally friendly,” she said. “We expect that people can use gas instead of charcoal, the same with industries like tea factories instead of using firewood, they use gas. It’s part of our green agenda.” The deep waters of Lake Kivu, which lies in the volcanic region on Rwanda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, emit such dense clouds of methane that scientists fear they might erupt, killing those living along its shore. Eruptions from much smaller methane-emitting lakes in Cameroon, one causing a toxic cloud and another sparking an explosion, killed a total of nearly 1,800 people. The shores of Lake Kivu are …

Uruguay Betting on Exports of Medical Marijuana

When he was younger, the only thing that Enrique Morales knew about marijuana was that you smoked it to get high. Today, the former driver is a horticulturist on a cannabis plantation about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo and he says drops of marijuana oil have been key to treating his mother’s osteoarthritis. “My perception has now changed. It is a plant that has a lot of properties!” he said. The company that owns the plantation, Fotmer SA, is now part of a flourishing and growing medical cannabis industry in Uruguay. The country got a head start on competitors in December 2013 when it became the first in the world to regulate the cannabis market from growing to purchase, a move that has brought a wave of investment. For Uruguayan citizens or legal residents over 18 years old, the law allows the recreational use, personal cultivation and sale in pharmacies of marijuana through a government-run permit system, and officials later legalized the use and export of medical marijuana to countries where it is legal. No company has yet begun large-scale export operations, but many say selling medical cannabis oil beyond the local market of 3.3 million inhabitants is key to staying ahead of the tide and transforming Uruguay into a medical cannabis leader along with the Netherlands, Canada and Israel. “The Latin American market is poorly supplied and is growing,” said Chuck Smith, chief operating officer of Denver, …

Our Milky Way Galaxy Truly Warped, at Least Around Edges

It turns out our Milky Way galaxy is truly warped, at least around the far edges. Scientists in China and Australia released an updated 3D map of the Milky Way on Tuesday. They used 1,339 pulsating stars — young, newly catalogued stars bigger and brighter than our sun — to map the galaxy’s shape. The farther from the center, the more warping, or twisting, there is in the Milky Way’s outer hydrogen gas disc. Researchers say the warped, spiral pattern is likely caused by the spinning force of the massive inner disc of stars. “We usually think of spiral galaxies as being quite flat, like Andromeda, which you can easily see through a telescope,” Macquarie University’s Richard de Grijs, who took part in the study, said in a statement from Sydney. Lead researcher Xiaodian Chen of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing said it’s difficult to determine distances from the sun to the Milky Way’s fringes, “without having a clear idea of what that disc actually looks like.” The stars on which his team’s map is based — known as classical Cepheids — provided substantial measuring accuracy. At least a dozen other galaxies appear to have warped edges in a similar spiral pattern, so in that respect, we’re hardly unique. The study appears in the journal Nature Astronomy. …

Egyptian Babies Get Blue Ribbons as Parents Say ‘No’ to Female Genital Mutilation

Doctors at two Cairo hospitals will pin blue ribbon badges to the clothing of newborn baby girls on Wednesday as they launch a campaign to persuade parents in Egypt to “say no to female genital mutilation.” The country has the highest number of women affected by FGM in the world, with nearly nine in 10 having been cut, according to U.N. data. Parents will receive the badges — which resemble the Arabic word “no” and look like an upside down version of awareness ribbons for HIV/AIDS and breast cancer – after signing a pledge that they will not have their daughters cut. Activists hope more hospitals will join the campaign, which launches on International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM. FGM was banned in Egypt in 2008 and criminalized in 2016, but the practice persists, with most procedures now carried out by health professionals. Many families see FGM as a religious obligation and a way to preserve their daughter’s virginity. “It is a wrong and ugly belief. We have to make clear that FGM (does not stop) sexual desire,” said pediatric doctor Amira Edris who works at one of the Cairo hospitals. “I have a veil on my head and I respect religious rules … but this is not a religious rule – it is a false belief,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. FGM, which commonly involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia, is practised in a swathe of African countries and parts of Asia and …

Madrid Taxi Drivers Call Off Anti-Uber Strike, Vow to Fight On

Taxi-drivers in the Spanish capital seeking tighter regulation of Uber and other ride-hailing services called off their indefinite strike on Tuesday after 16 days during which they obtained no concessions from the Madrid regional government. Madrid’s refusal to accept drivers’ demands came after ride-hailing companies Uber and Cabify said last week they were suspending their services in Barcelona in response to the regional government’s imposition of limits on how they operate in the city. Union representatives in Madrid said the strike had demonstrated the unity and power of the drivers, which would help them continue the fight for their demands. “It is a long war, in which you can lose battles, but in the end I’m sure we can win,” Julio Sanz, head of the Taxi Federation union, told reporters. The city’s taxi drivers started the protests on Jan. 20 against the private services, which offer rides that often undercut taxi prices and can be hailed via the internet rather than in the street. Last week, riot police backed by a fleet of tow trucks had to clear hundreds of vehicles blocking the capital’s Paseo de la Castellana thoroughfare. In September, Spain’s government gave ride-hailing companies four years to comply with regulation granting them just one new licence for every 30 taxi licences. The cab drivers are demanding stricter regulations now. Following protests by Barcelona taxi-drivers, the Catalan government had ruled that ride-hailing services could only pick up passengers after a 15-minute delay from the time they were booked. …

Venezuelans Rush to Benefit From Rare Reverse in Currency Rate Trend

It is an unusual sight for Caracas: lines are forming outside currency exchange houses that had been largely deserted since the Venezuelan government introduced controls 16 years ago. That is because the official exchange rate for remittances from the growing diaspora abroad is now more attractive than the black market rate, a reversal of a long-standing dynamic. The government is loosening controls in a bid to capture more dollars at a time when its hard currency income is under pressure from U.S. sanctions imposed to help the Venezuelan opposition oust President Nicolas Maduro, industry sources say. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump last week imposed sweeping sanctions on Venezuelan state-owned oil firm PDVSA, a key source of the OPEC nation’s revenue. “For the time being at least, it’s worth coming here,” said Laura Espana, upon leaving a branch of Italcambio, one of the currency exchange houses authorized to operate by the government of Maduro. Italcambio did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Espana said she had gone to the exchange house twice over the past week to receive bolivars for hard currency sent by her daughter who lives abroad. On Tuesday, the official rate was 3,297 bolivars per dollar, well above the black market rate that was around 2,486 bolivars, according to the website DolarToday. An ever growing number of Venezuelans receive remittances, given around one tenth of the population of 30 million has emigrated in recent years due to an economic collapse. Consultancy firms estimate those …

Operation Rescue Airlifts Baby Flamingos Facing Drought in South Africa

A special airlift for thousands of baby flamingos is under way in South Africa, as drought puts their breeding ground in peril. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports. A warning, some of the images in her report may be disturbing. …

UN Sees Poverty Hope in African Uptake of Child Welfare Payments