FACTBOX -The world's most dangerous countries for women

Afghanistan, Congo and Pakistan are the world's most dangerous countries for women due to a barrage of threats ranging from violence and rape to dismal healthcare and "honour killngs", a Thomson Reuters Foundation expert poll showed on Wednesday.

India and Somalia ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.

TrustLaw asked 213 gender experts from five continents to rank countries by overall perceptions of danger as well as by six risks: health threats, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, cultural or religious factors, lack of access to resources and trafficking.





Following are key facts on each of the five countries, ranked in order of danger.

1. AFGHANISTAN

Beleaguered by insurgency, corruption and dire poverty, Afghanistan ranked as most dangerous to women overall and came out worst in three of the poll's key risk categories: health, non-sexual violence and economic discrimination.

* Women in Afghanistan have a one in 11 chance of dying in childbirth.

* Some 87 pct of women are illiterate.

* 70-80 pct of girls and women face forced marriages.

2. CONGO

Still reeling from a 1998-2003 war and accompanying humanitarian disaster that killed 5.4 million, Democratic Republic of Congo ranked second due mainly to staggering levels of sexual violence.

* About 1,150 women are raped every day, or some 420,000 a year, according to a recent report in the American Journal of Public Health.

* The Congolese Women's Campaign Against Sexual Violence puts the number of rapes at 40 women a day.

* 57 pct of pregnant women are anaemic.

3. PAKISTAN

Those polled cited cultural, tribal and religious practices harmful to women, including acid attacks, child and forced marriage and punishment or retribution by stoning or other physical abuse.

* More than 1,000 women and girls are victims of "honour killings" every year, according to Pakistan's Human Rights Commission.

* 90 pct of women in Pakistan face domestic violence.

4. INDIA

Female foeticide, child marriage and high levels of trafficking and domestic servitude make the world's largest democracy the fourth most dangerous place for women, the poll showed.

* 100 million people, mostly women and girls, are involved in trafficking in one way or another, according to former Indian Home Secretay Madhukar Gupta.

* Up to 50 million girls are "missing" over the past century due to female infanticide and foeticide.

* 44.5 pct of girls are married before the age of 18.

5. SOMALIA

One of the poorest, most violent and lawless countries, Somalia ranked fifth due to a catalogue of dangers including high maternal mortality, rape, female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage.

* 95 pct of women face FGM, mostly between the ages of 4 and 11.

* Only 9 pct of women give birth at a health facility.

* Only 7.5 pct of parliament seats are held by women.

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Drug makes hearts repair themselves

A drug that makes hearts repair themselves has been used in research on mice. The damage caused by a heart attack had previously been considered permanent.. But a study in the journal Nature showed the drug, thymosin beta 4, if used in advance of a heart attack, was able to "prime" the heart for repair. The British Heart Foundation described repair as the "holy grail of heart research", but said any treatment in humans was years away. Due to advances in health care the number of people dying from coronary heart disease is falling. But those living with heart failure are on the rise - more than 750,000 people have the condition in the UK alone. WAKE UP The researchers at University College London looked at a group of cells which are able to transform into different types of heart tissue in an embryo. In adults epicardium-derived progenitor cells line the heart, but have become dormant. Scientists used a chemical, thymosin beta 4, to "wake them up". Professor Paul Riley, from the University College London, said: "The adult epicardial cells which line the muscle of the heart can be activated, move inward and give rise to new heart muscle." "We saw an improvement in the ejection fraction, in the ability of the heart to pump out blood, of 25 percent." As well as pumping more blood, the scar tissue was reduced and the walls of the heart became thicker. Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said he was 'very excited' about the research but warned the scale of improvement seen in animals was rarely seen in humans. Heart Epicardium derived progenitor cells (in red) lining the heart However, he argued that even a small improvement would have a dramatic impact on people's quality of life. "A normal heart has lots of spare capacity. In patients with heart failure it is working flat out just to sit down [and] it's like running a marathon," he said. "You could turn a patient from somebody who's gasping while sitting in a chair to somebody who can sit comfortably in a chair." ADVANCE THERAPY The mice needed to take the drug in advance of a heart attack in order for it to be effective. As the researchers put it, "the priming effect is key". If a similar drug could be found to be effective in humans, then the researchers believe it would need to be prescribed in a similar way to stains. Professor Riley said "I could envisage a patient known to be at risk of a heart attack - either because of family history or warning signs spotted by their GP - taking an oral tablet, which would prime their heart so that if they had a heart attack the damage could be repaired." He said this could be available in 10 years. The British Heart Foundation, which funded the study, said repairing a damaged heart was the "holy grail" of heart research. The results strengthened the evidence that drugs could be used to prevent the onset of heart failure, it said.

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Yemeni President Saleh’s health ‘stable’

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“The condition of the Yemeni president is stable,” a Saudi official said on condition of anonymity, adding the beleaguered president was waiting for doctors to “appoint a date for cosmetic surgery.”
Saleh, 69, would undergo a cosmetic operation to treat “light burns on the scalp,” he said, adding that “reports on the deterioration of his health condition are baseless.”
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Yemeni Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has insisted that Saleh is in good condition and that he will return to Yemen within days.
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