300,000 Rohingya Could Flee Burma: HRW Daily Brief

Since the 1960s, doctors in the United States and around the world have routinely performed surgery on intersex infants and children – whom when born do not correspond to traditional notions of “male” or “female” – to assign them a sex. These surgeries are medically unnecessary, irreversible, often traumatizing, and carry a risk of lifelong harm. Medical associations in the US should endorse their ban now. About 8,000 people were forced from their homes in Mitrovica town after the 1998-1999 Kosovo war. The United Nations resettled 600 of them in camps contaminated by lead from a nearby industrial mine. It's time the UN stopped ignoring reports of medical harm suffered in these camps, and instead offered to help. Singapore is harassing activists campaigning against capital punishment, in another example of its disdain for peaceful assembly. Recently, police went so far as to break up a candlelight vigil on the eve of a man's execution, telling those gathered they could stay only if they didn't light any more candles... Meanwhile, two Singaporean nationals were arrested in the United Arab Emirates and sentenced to one year in prison for "attempting to resemble women...". Not exactly the "ideal tourist destination" the UAE government advertises... From earlier today: Up to 300,000 Rohingya Muslims could flee violence in Burma for Bangladesh, a UN agency official has warned. Violence there is continuing, and 146,000 people have already poured across the border in just 12 days. HRW says it's time for the UK government to change its policy on the crisis in Burma and stop deferring to de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has failed to speak out against or stop the violence and whose reputation now lies "in tatters".