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Australia blames refugee advocates after asylum seeker sets herself alight

By Colin Packham SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia blamed refugee advocates on Tuesday for “encouraging” asylum seekers held in remote camps towards acts of self-harm after a woman set herself on fire, while the United Nations renewed its criticism of Australia's harsh immigration policy. Australian officials said an unidentified 21-year-old Somali woman was in a critical condition after she set herself alight at an Australian detention camp on the tiny South Pacific island of Nauru on Monday, the second such incident in a week. A 23-year-old Iranian man also set himself on fire last week in protest against his treatment on Nauru and later died.

Formula One’s ‘Halo’ protection device on track for 2017

By Ian Ransom MELBOURNE (Reuters) – The prototype “halo” head protection device, aimed at shielding Formula One drivers from flying debris, is on track to be adopted for the 2017 season pending a safety review, race director Charlie Whiting said on Friday. The halo, which is fixed to the cockpit at three points including a central pillar right in front of the driver, made its debut in Spain earlier this month. F1 outfit Red Bull, whose team principal Christian Horner has expressed misgivings over the halo's design, are developing a separate device but Whiting said it was unlikely to be ready in time for 2017.

Australia detains U.S. anti-abortion activist

By Colin Packham SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia said it has detained an U.S. anti-abortion activist after he attempted to enter the country without a valid visa on Thursday, just days after permission for him travel to Australia for a series of talks was revoked. Troy Newman, a anti-abortion campaigner, was detained at Melbourne Airport after landing on a flight from the United States, a spokeswoman for Australian minister for Immigration Petter Dutton said. “Since does not hold a visa, he is unable to enter Australia and remains in the presence of Australian Border Force officials at the Melbourne Airport pending his removal,” the spokeswoman said.

One million Africans a year catch malaria from dam mosquitoes: study

By Katy Migiro NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – One million Africans will catch malaria this year because they live near a large dam and, at a time of booming dam construction on the continent, greater efforts must be made to protect people from the killer disease, a study said on Friday. Almost 80 major new dams are due to be built in sub-Saharan Africa over the next few years, leading to an additional 56,000 malaria cases a year, the study in Malaria Journal predicted. “While dams clearly bring many benefits — contributing to economic growth, poverty alleviation and food security — adverse malaria impacts need to be addressed or they will undermine the sustainability of Africa’s drive for development,” the paper's lead author, Solomon Kibret of Australia's University of New England, said in a statement.

Rugby-Concussion-prone Wallabies hooker Polota-Nau gets more rest

Wallabies hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, who said earlier this month he might retire if he was badly concussed again, will be rested from Super Rugby for another three weeks to ensure he has fully recovered from a head knock. The hard-running rake suffered the latest in a long string of concussions in the New South Wales Waratahs’s win over the ACT Brumbies in Canberra on May 1 and has not played since. Michael Cheika, both Waratahs and Australia coach this year, said the 29-year-old would not play against Canterbury Crusaders this weekend or on the two-match tour of South Africa that follows the 2014 Super Rugby final re-match.

Hormone drugs boost ovarian cancer risk by 40%

Menopausal women who take hormone replacement therapy (HRT) boost the risk of ovarian cancer by 40 percent, even if they take the treatment only for a few years, a study said Friday. The probe marks the widest-ever analysis of the risk of ovarian cancer from HRT, a treatment whose use declined when its safety was questioned a dozen years ago. Researchers publishing in The Lancet carried out an overview of 52 published studies, covering nearly 21,500 women in North America, Europe and Australia who had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. “For women who take HRT for five years from around age 50, there will be about one extra ovarian cancer for every 1,000 users, and one extra ovarian cancer death for every 1,700 users,” said Richard Peto, a University of Oxford professor who co-authored the study.