The destruction of Turkey’s 12,000-year-old Hasankeyf citadel has moved a step closer as authorities have begun to collapse cliff faces around the ruins of the settlement. The move, linked to the construction of a highly controversial dam about 50 miles downstream, is also expected to damage the rich ecosystem of the Tigris river basin.

Local authorities have announced that the rocks were broken off “for safety reasons” and that 210 caves – a fraction of thousands of manmade caves in the area – would be filled before the town’s inundation in order to prevent erosion. The Ilisu dam, part of the Southeast Anatolian project (Gap) and one of Turkey’s largest hydroelectric projects to date, has been mired in controversy ever since it was first drafted in 1954. The dam will raise the level of the Tigris at Hasankeyf by 60m, submerging 80% of the ancient city and numerous surrounding villages, including more than 300 historical sites that have still not been explored. Environmental engineer Ercan Ayboga of the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive warns that close to 80,000 people will be displaced. Many of them will lose their land and their livelihoods. Because of additional debts taken up to purchase new homes, thousands face impoverishment.(theguardian)…[+]

Police are investigating the death of a four-year-old boy believed to have drowned at the end of a week-long family holiday organised by Narcotics Anonymous. Officers and paramedics were called to Knapp House activity centre in north Devon on bank holiday Monday after the child was reported missing.

The police helicopter was involved in the search and the boy was discovered in a swimming pool at the centre. He was taken to North Devon district hospital in Barnstaple but could not be saved. Devon and Cornwall police said they were treating the death as unexplained. A force spokeswoman said: “Police were notified around 2.55pm yesterday [Monday 28 August], to reports of a missing four-year-old boy at Knapp House activity centre in Northam, Bideford. “Following an extensive search assisted by the police helicopter, the child was located in a swimming pool at the site and taken to North Devon district hospital where he was pronounced deceased. “The boy’s next of kin have been informed and enquiries continue. Officers are investigating the circumstances and the death is currently being treated as unexplained.”

A spokesperson for Devon Narcotics Anonymous Campout Committee said something had gone “horrifically wrong”. The spokesperson said: “For the sixth year running, we have organised a week-long summer holiday campout for members of Narcotics Anonymous and their families at Knapp House and we all enjoyed a wonderful week of sharing lives of complete freedom from drug and alcohol use. (theguardian)…[+]

Fourteen people have died from an outbreak of hepatitis A in San Diego, and experts believe it to be the deadliest outbreak of the disease in the US in decades, the Guardian has learned. In large part, the victims were homeless people who have had to contend with a lack of 24-hour public restrooms, even though hand-washing is one of the best defenses against infection.

The number of cases has exceeded other large outbreaks, said a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) spokesperson, and is “likely the most deaths in an outbreak in the US in the past 20 years”, the period in which the CDC has operated its electronic reporting system. In 2003, three people died and at least 124 were hospitalized after eating contaminated salsa at a Pennsylvania restaurant. In 2013, 69 people across 10 states were hospitalized after eating contaminated pomegranate seeds.

Yet in San Diego, 264 people have been hospitalized, roughly 70% of them homeless, in an outbreak that began last November, according to local health officials. Nine of the 14 deaths have occurred since mid-July. The virus, which impairs liver function, causing jaundice, fatigue, joint pain and, in the most serious cases, death, is largely spread through food or water contaminated by fecal matter. Hepatitis A has a long incubation period – up to 28 days – which means people can spread the disease before they’re aware they’re infected.(theguardian)…[+]

Pope Francis will travel to Myanmar and Bangladesh this year for a landmark visit that is likely to focus international attention on the plight of the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority. The leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics will be in Myanmar from 27 to 30 November and neighbouring Bangladesh from 30 November to 2 December, the Vatican said on Monday. The visit to Myanmar will be the first by any pope to the country formerly known as Burma. Pope John Paul II visited Bangladesh in 1986. Francis has regularly spoken out in defence of the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim group in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. On Sunday he bemoaned the latest “sad reports of the persecution of a religious minority, our Rohingya brothers” adding: “I would like to express my closeness to them and all of us ask the Lord to save them and to prompt men and women of good faith to help them and ensure their full rights.”(theguardian)…[+]