Breakthroughs Today

ZOSIMO T. LITERATUS, RMT Harvard obstetrician-gynecologist Nawal Nour reported to the Reviews in Obstetrics & Gynecology (2008 issue): “The origins of FGC are a mystery.” The World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) jointly issued in 1997 a statement defining female genital cutting (FGC) or female circumcision as “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons.” [1] Amnesty International estimated in October 1997 that more than 130 million women worldwide had FGC, with over 2 million procedures being performed each year. According to a UNICEF report [2] in 2005, 80% or more women in Africa had FGC including such countries as at the top: Guinea (99%), Egypt (97%), Mali (92%), Sudan north (90%), Eritrea (89%), and Ethiopia (80%). Ranked below Ethiopia in FGC prevalence are B

Microsoft Corporation founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates released, during his keynote address at the Technology, Entertainment, and Design Conference in Long Beach, California, a swarm of "malaria-carrying" mosquitoes before an elite group of technology tycoons, politicians and Hollywood stars in an attempt to send a wake up call for the rich to take an active role in help irradicate malaria around the world, especially among impoverished countries. He shortly informed the panic-stricken audience that the mosquitoes are malaria-free. ( Click here for more detail. )