20 former world leaders to discuss the looming crisis of water (AFP)

Montreal (AFP) - twenty former heads of State, including former US President Bill Clinton, warned Tuesday of a crisis imminent "water" and decided to create a panel that will address a gap in leadership in the world on the issue.

Retired leaders, among them former Mexican President Vicente Fox and former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, said the Panel would work to raise the political importance of the issue in order to avoid the problems threatening water supplies around the world.

The InterAction of Council members who attend this year three-day annual meeting in Quebec also include former Mexican leader Ernesto Zedillo and and Gro Brundtland, of the Norway.

The Group urged a new international ethic of the water and offered 21 recommendations for the management of global water.

At the top of the list: "escape from the water at the forefront of the global political agenda."

Other elements included linking climate research on change and problems, creating a right to water and increase the price of water to reflect the economic value of water.

In regions where water is rationed, priority must be for food crops and not bio-fuels, said the group, the co-chairs were Canadian former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and one-time Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky.

Well that there is a supply abundant water in Quebec, it is a particularly topical subject after Quebec space tourist Guy Laliberté, founder of Cirque du Soleil, the billionaire has dedicated its 2009 visit to the International Space Station to raise awareness of international water issues.

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Brazil Federal leaders discuss conflict Amazon (AP)

RIO DE JANEIRO - the Government of the Brazil will protect rural activists and increase the maintenance of order in its Amazonian forest in an effort to halt the deadly conflict in illegal logging, officials said following a meeting Monday on how to put an end to the violence.

At least three rural activists were killed in the region within a week: Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria, in the State of Para and Adelino Ramos in the State of Rond?nia. A fourth person who may have witnessed the murders in Para was also killed.

According to the Catholic monitoring group pastoral land, known as the CPT, in Brazil, more than 1 150 rural activists were killed in the past 20 years. The murders are mainly carried out by armed men hired by farmers, ranchers and loggers to silence protest over illegal logging of forests.

The monitoring group has to a list of 125-name-long of activists whose life is in danger because of their position against the loggers are common in the region on important environmental.

Minister of justice Luiz Paulo Barreto, said that the Government of the Brazil will analyze all cases on the list of the CPT and provide immediate protection.

"The Federal Government will not accept on efforts to bring peace in the region," Barreto said at a press conference.

The Monday meeting was led by the Brazilian Vice President Michel Temer and included the Ministers of the environment, justice, rural development and human rights. Their purpose was to promote cooperation between the Governments and States to stop the massacres. The Governors of the States of Para, Amazonas and Roraima were invited to the capital, Brasilia, for meetings later this week.

Ministers announced the creation of a working group on violence in the Amazon. No details were given on how the Government intends to fulfill its promise to increase police services in the region or how many new officers will be sent.

"We will not accept these murders and will be intensified surveillance and investigation and strengthen the actions leading to sustainable development in the region said Florence of Afonso of Minister of Rural development."

As a first step, the Ministry of Justice requested the participation of the federal police in the investigation into the death of the couple in Para State, according to a memo from the Office of the Presidential Palace press.

During this time, a man, Ozeas Vicente, was arrested Monday after himself for killing Adelino Ramos, according to a press release from the Ministry of public security of the State of Rondonia.

Ramos was known to denounce the illegal logging in the Amazon region. He died Friday after being shot six times while taking products to sell in a market with his wife and children. His family was not prejudiced.

He lead the Association of peasants Amazon and survived one of the most deadly land disputes, to Brazil - the Corumbiara massacre in August 1995 when police killed 10 militants peasants without land. Two policemen also died.

Life of Ramos had repeatedly threatened by forestry operators of States, including Acre, Amazonas and Rondonia, according to a press release of the Federal Secretary for human rights.

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Female genital mutilation prohibited by Islamic leaders in Mauritania (ContributorNetwork)

This week, 34 deemed Mauritanian religious and national leaders have signed a fatwa, or Islamic law, prohibiting female genital mutilation (FGM). The fatwa is considered a huge step towards women's rights in the world of Islam.

Female genital mutilation, or female genital mutilation, are a form of female circumcision. It involves the removal of all or part of the external female genital organs, including the clitoris and labia.

It is often performed on girls between the time where they were born and their early teenage years. After the circumcision is complete, much experience serious bleeding, difficulty in urinating, complications of childbirth and, in some cases, death.

According to the World Health Organization, the procedure has no medical benefits.

Female circumcision is not a practice of religion. However, it became "entitled by custom," said Jacqueline Castledine in an article published on the site of Mount Holyoke College.

She said that "the practice has become important of Islam because it is associated with female sexual purity." "FGM is intended by its practitioners for sexual drives of two control women and also for clean female genitalia by removing the clitoris, which is considered to be male, a female penis".

The Act was adopted on January 15, 2011, by 34 national and religious personalities Mauritanian. It prohibits the practice of female genital mutilation in the country.

According to Magharebia.com, "the authors cited the work of Islamic legal expert Ibn al-Hajj in support of their assertion that [s] uch practices were not present in the countries of the Maghreb in past centuries.".

This new law will certainly restrict the practice of female genital mutilation in Mauratania.

"" It removes the religious mask such practices have hidden behind, ", explains Dr. Cheikh Ould Zein Ould Imam, Professor of jurisprudence at the University of Nouakchott, in an article in Magharebia.com." "" We must, however, a media campaign to highlight the fatwa, to explain and to expose its religious and social significance. ?

Many men and women - both Islamic and it said pas - a victory for women's rights, saying the fatwa was long awaited.

"Where were the imams in the course of the past decades, when [FGM] killed dozens of girls each year?" Were imams and circumcision victims on two different planets? Speaking personally, I find no answer to these questions. All I'm trying to say, it's that necessary that fatwa prohibiting circumcision, long ago. I have been victimized by this brutal custom when I was seven, and he left an indelible psychological scar, "said Miriam, a woman 30 years circumcised as a young girl home.

Wendy Rose Gould is an independent journalist who resides in Phoenix. His work appeared both online and catalog of Hearst, Conde Nast, AOL, USA Today and other publications. Gould is an avid traveler who has lived abroad and traveled extensively in the world. She holds a Bachelor's degree in journalism and another in philosophy.

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