The Director of Operations, Maretino Qiolevu, raised the issue when he addressed the Interfaith Search Fiji panel discussion, to which the Force was invited in Suva last week.

"We have been reaching out to religious organisations. We strongly believe that, together, we can help answer the question as to why women and children continue to be victims of sexual crimes which are very often being committed by their loved ones," Qiolevu said.

"The partnership forged with the Methodist Church (of Fiji) has been greatly welcomed and we have had some of our senior officers speaking at various affiliated gatherings about domestic crime."

Qiolevu said officers under the Duavata Community Policing have been linking up with the various religious organisations throughout the four policing divisions.

A total of 71 separate incidents of rape and sexual offences was recorded by the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) for the month of July this year.

Of the 71 incidents, 37 people were charged. The offences included rape, attempted rape, assault with intent to rape, and defilement and sexual assault.

Thirteen of the people charged were under the age of 18.

Statistics also revealed that there were 71 incidents in which 21 victims were involved, 15 of those being under 18 years of age.

In seven of the incidents, the accused and the victims were related to each other.

Between August 2016 and April 2017, 787 child abuse cases were recorded, an increase of 34% on the previous year.

Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Mereseini Vuniwaqa, says almost every week there are new cases in which children have been sexually abused.

Source

• The Jet
• Fiji Times
• FijiSun
• Image: discoversociety.org

He believes what drives constructive social behaviour "is our families, our iwi, our churches, our communities."

English was the guest at Family First's 10th annual "Forum on the Family" in Auckland on Friday.

A number of speakers addressed the forum and Family First National Director Bob McCoskrie interviewed English.

The Labour leader Andrew Little declined numerous invitations to attend.

Newshub summarised the opinions English expressed in the course of the interview:

Abortion - against the practice but not seeking a change in the law. English said he accepts the majority of New Zealanders aren't on side with his views on abortion.

Euthanasia - opposes any form of euthanasia. He said there are no safeguards that could be proposed that would change his views on euthanasia, "I don't think you could make them adequate".

Gay marriage - doesn't oppose it but when asked if his own personal definition for the word marriage was between "one man and one woman", he said, "Well that's my definition of it".

He went on to explain that he was married in the Catholic Church, and his views reflected those Catholic beliefs.

Pornography - has no interest or tolerance in porn whatsoever
English said it's a challenging issue for police, "You couldn't just 'ban it'".

He told the audience it's not necessarily an issue for the Government to sort out.

Source

• Newshub
• Family First
• Image: Stuff Family First

Some say the human-animal embryo research has the potential to spark major medical breakthroughs in diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's or conditions like infertility, and could help grow organs for human transplant, which are in short supply.

Critics, however, worry that these mixtures, or chimeras - named after the monster in Greek mythology with a lion's head, goat's body and dragon's tail - raise complex moral questions and go beyond what is acceptable in modern society.

One year ago, the US National Institutes of Health placed a moratorium on research proposing to introduce human pluripotent cells into animal embryos, deeming it too controversial.

Since then, experts have met to discuss the state of the science.

Now, the NIH is offering to fund research introducing human cells into certain kinds of animals.

That could include experiments "where there could be either a substantial contribution or a substantial functional modification to the animal brain by the human cells," said a statement on Thursday.

The NIH will seek public comment for 30 days on the proposed scope of the research.

Oversight on funding decisions will be provided by an internal NIH steering committee, it said.

"I am confident that these proposed changes will enable the NIH research community to move this promising area of science forward in a responsible manner," wrote Carrie Wolinetz, NIH associate director for science policy, in a blog post.

However, the prospect of altering an animal's brain to make it more human alarms some experts.

• Yahoo New Zealand
• Image: www.youtube.com