Carla del Ponte, 70, who prosecuted war crimes in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia, told a panel discussion on the sidelines of the Locarno Film Festival that she had already prepared her letter of resignation.
“I am quitting this commission, which is not backed by any political will,” she said, adding that her role was just an “alibi”.
“I have no power as long as the Security Council does nothing,” she said. “We are powerless, there is no justice for Syria.”
Del Ponte, a former Swiss attorney general, joined the three-member Syria inquiry in September 2012, chronicling incidents such as chemical weapons attacks, a genocide against Iraq’s Yazidi population, siege tactics, and the bombing of aid convoys.
She could not immediately be reached for comment and the United Nations did not immediately confirm her plans to quit.
Her departure will leave only two commissioners, Brazilian human rights expert Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, and Karen Koning AbuZayd from the United States.
The commission was set up in August 2011 and has regularly reported on human rights violations, but its pleas to observe international law have largely fallen on deaf ears.
Although the United Nations is setting up a new body to prepare prosecutions, there is no sign of any court being established to try war crimes committed in the six-and-a-half year-old war, nor of any intention by the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Del Ponte’s determination to be independent made her outspoken and occasionally controversial. She shocked Western governments in May 2013 by declaring that the United Nations had “strong suspicions” of Syrian rebels using sarin gas.
Two years later, she said justice would catch up with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, even if he remained in power under a negotiated peace settlement.
Earlier this year, when the commission reported on Syrian government aircraft deliberately bombing and strafing a humanitarian convoy, del Ponte hinted at her frustration with the inability to bring the perpetrators to justice.
“What we have seen here in Syria, I never saw that in Rwanda, or in former Yugoslavia, in the Balkans. It is really a big tragedy,” she added. “Unfortunately we have no tribunal.”
After three years of pushing through Flanders, British commander-in-chief Douglas Haig launched a major offensive for control of the village of Passchendaele on the last day of July. The campaign, also known as the ‘Third Battle of Ypres’, proved particularly difficult for the Commonwealth forces as hundreds of thousands of men fought in Dantean conditions.
“I died in hell – they called it Passchendaele”, the British soldier and famed poet Siegfried Sassoonwrote of the carnage that raged over more than three months. A century later, the name Passchendaele still resonates in the British memory. Historian Paul Reed, who specialises in World War I, described how this bloody battle unfolded to FRANCE 24.
FRANCE 24: Why did the British decide to attack Passchendaele?
‘The Second Battle of Ypres’ had ended in May 1915, when the Germans had used poison gas for the first time. They had not achieved a breakthrough at this time but they had captured all the high ground, which surrounded the Belgian city of Ypres. For the next two years the Germans dominated the battlefield in Flanders.
In 1917 the allies decided to attack with an unprecedented amount of artillery and men at Ypres … and break the German lines, pushing them back off the high ground … The Allied forces plan was to advance to the Channel coast and capture the German submarine bases, which were threatening Allied shipping [providing critical supplies].
Ypres was always Britain’s main theatre of operations on the Western Front; even more so than the Somme or Arras. More than 250,000 British and Commonwealth troops died here in WWI, so arguably it was also Britain’s greatest single place of sacrifice.
FRANCE 24: Were the weather conditions particularly terrible for the soldiers? What was the cost of the battle?
On the first day of the battle – July 31, 1917 – the offensive was largely successful in most sectors. But it started to rain that day, and pretty much did not stop, on and off, for much of the rest of the battle. The bombardments destroyed everything, including all the drainage, and in a landscape with a vast array of blue clay beneath it, this meant that heavy rainfall could not drain … and collected at the surface level, turning the battlefield into muddy soup. Passchendaele became a vast lunar landscape of shell holes and mud and muck and slime; men could and did drown in the mud, and everything from horses to tanks disappeared into it. It was arguably the worst battlefield on which British and Commonwealth soldiers fought during the Great War.
Total British and Commonwealth casualties were almost 300,000, with more than 70,000 dead. It was not the costliest battle of the war for Britain, but being fought in such a small area, the losses were not insignificant for the ground gained. The nature of the battlefield, with heavy shelling and liquid mud, meant that many soldiers just disappeared; over 60 percent of the dead at ‘Third Ypres’ have no known grave – a higher than normal proportion.
FRANCE 24: Can we call the battle a success for the Allies?
No breakthrough to the coast was made, but the Germans were pushed back beyond the Passchendaele Ridge. They no longer dominated the ground in Flanders. In that respect, Passchendaele was a victory. Whether that was worth the sacrifice of so many lives in 1917 is something still hotly debated. For the soldiers on the ground, the battle area behind their forward positions at Passchendaele was devastated. It was so difficult to cross that it was said it could take 18 hours to move from the outskirts of Ypres to the front line, some eight miles away at Passchendaele.
FRANCE 24: How will this battle be commemorated in 2017?
There will be a major commemorative service at Tyne Cot Cemetery, in the heart of the Passchendaele battlefield and the largest British and Commonwealth cemetery, on July 31. The night before in Ypres, a sound and light show will illuminate the Cloth Hall building with images of the battle and specially commissioned pieces to reflect on the battle a hundred years ago. Throughout the rest of the year smaller-scale events will take place, and no doubt many will be there on the day a relative died, to remember, a century on.
For us in Britain it’s all very simple: Ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances, and we can never, ever forgot them – whether they marched to Flanders forever or came home to live with the memory of that mud for the rest of their lives.
(Editor’s note: The UK’s Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge will be among those gathering in Belgium on Monday to mark 100 years since the start of the battle.)
Regulator Transport for London (TfL) said Uber’s conduct posed risks to public safety and it would not renew its licence when it expires on Sept. 30. Uber has 21 days to appeal and can continue to operate until the appeal process has finished.
“Uber’s approach and conduct demonstrate a lack of corporate responsibility in relation to a number of issues which have potential public safety and security implications,” TfL said.
Uber, which accounts for a third of private hire vehicles on London’s streets, said it would contest the decision.
“Transport for London and the Mayor have caved in to a small number of people who want to restrict consumer choice,” said Tom Elvidge, Uber’s general manager in London.
“We intend to immediately challenge this in the courts.”
Uber has been attacked by London’s black cab drivers who say it has undercut safety rules and threatened their livelihoods.
The app has been forced to quit several countries including Denmark and Hungary and faced regulatory battles in multiple U.S. states and countries around the world.
One of Uber’s British competitors in London, Addison Lee, is also awaiting a decision from TfL about a longer-term licence. The company declined to comment on Friday.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he backed the decision to reject Uber’s application for a new licence.
“All companies in London must play by the rules and adhere to the high standards we expect – particularly when it comes to the safety of customers,” he said.
“It would be wrong if TfL continued to license Uber if there is any way that this could pose a threat to Londoners’ safety and security.”
Pop star Justin Timberlake paid tribute to Prince and took selfies with fans during his Super Bowl half-time show.
The singer performed I Would Die 4 U during a hit-packed, 12-minute set in Minneapolis – Prince’s home town.
Timberlake also ran into the crowd to dance and pose for photos, in an unfailingly energetic appearance.
And he tacitly acknowledged his last Super Bowl performance in 2004, which ended with Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction”.
Media captionJustin Timberlake’s Prince tribute at Super Bowl
On that occasion, he ripped a panel off Jackson’s bodice, revealing her right breast as he sang the lyric “gonna have you naked by the end of this song”.
When he reached that line on Sunday night, Timberlake stopped the music and cut to another song.
The gesture is unlikely to have impressed Jackson’s fans – who still resent the fact that her career was derailed by the incident, while Timberlake emerged relatively unscathed.
Ahead of the show, the hashtag “Justice for Janet” trended on Twitter, in the hope Timberlake would invite her back – but Jackson shut down that speculation earlier on Sunday.
Instead, Timberlake’s show (broadcast on a five-second delay that was instigated after the 2004 Super Bowl) was largely controversy-free.
His most divisive move was probably the decision to wear a shirt featuring a photograph of two caribou, which looked less like a stage outfit than your computer’s desktop wallpaper.
Still, Timberlake’s whip-crack choreography was so impressive it took a couple of minutes for the true horror of his outfit to really sink in.
He started the show backstage, performing his current single, Filthy, before dancing down an elevated walkway to the centre of the stadium.
Zipping through 12 songs in as many minutes, the 37-year-old showed off his enviable back catalogue – from the pop-funk of SexyBack to the robo-ballad Cry Me A River, into which he dropped elements of Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir.
Suit and Tie was performed with a marching band, while Timberlake sat at a piano to play his Prince tribute.
“Minneapolis, Minnesota, this one’s for you,” he declared, singing a new arrangement of I Would Die 4 U over an archive recording of Prince’s vocals, as images of the late superstar were projected behind him.
As the song reached its climax, the area around the stadium was bathed in purple lights, forming the “love symbol” Prince adopted as his name in the 1990s.
However, rumours that Timberlake would introduce a hologram of the pop icon turned out to be false.
Prince’s estate confirmed on Twitter that there were “never any plans” for such a stunt – although, in a neat touch, Timberlake’s band included guitarist Mike Scott, a long-time player in Prince’s band.
Timberlake made full use of the US Bank Stadium throughout his high-octane show, darting from one end of the pitch to another with barely a pause for breath.
He ended the show in the bleachers, singing Can’t Stop The Feeling with a bewildered teenage fan.
“That would have been my worst nightmare,” noted BBC Super Bowl presenter Mark Chapman afterwards.
“There’s at least 100 million people watching this in America alone and you’re meant to dance with Justin Timberlake on television!”
But it ended well – with Timberlake posing for a selfie with the youngster, instantly making him a star.
It was one of the few human moments in an expertly polished performance.
But the show lacked any of the spectacle we’ve come to expect from the Super Bowl – whether it’s Lady Gaga jumping off the ceiling of Houston’s NRG stadium or Katy Perry’s infamous “left shark” three years ago.
Maybe inviting Jackson back to make amends would have added some much-needed frisson, after all?
Earlier on Sunday, pop singer Pink – who’s a diehard fan of Super Bowl winnersthe Philadelphia Eagles – got the Super Bowl party started with a heartfelt rendition of the US National Anthem.
Despite battling flu, the singer’s voice was clear and powerful, with only a slight crack towards the end of her performance.
Cameras captured her removing a throat lozenge (which many first thought was gum) from her mouth, seconds before singing the opening line. The moment quickly became shared on social media.
Before the show, Pink wrote on Instagram: “I’ve been waiting to sing this song since 1991 when I saw my idol, Whitney Houston, own this song.
“And here we are. I’ve arrived at another one of my dreams which is slowly becoming a sort of nightmare.”
She said she had caught the flu from her two children Willow Sage and Jameson, calling them “two small petri dish kids who literally cough into my mouth”.
Operations planned for Monday morning at hospitals in Manchester have been cancelled due to a mains leak affecting the water supply.
Cancer and any urgent operations will still go ahead, the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust said.
The hospitals affected are the Royal Infirmary, the Royal Eye Hospital, Saint Mary’s Hospital and Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.
The water supply was restored earlier and operations will take place later.
Anyone with an outpatient appointment should still attend hospital as planned, the trust said.
It added that operations scheduled for Monday afternoon would take place, and cancelled operations would be rescheduled as soon as possible.
One patient tweeted about the affects on the patients the water outage had on Sunday evening, calling it a “shocking situation”.
Prof Cheryl Lenney, director of infection prevention and control for the trust, said: “Our sterile services require a significant amount of water to sterilise instruments, so it’s really important that we knew that the water supply to that department was functioning properly.
“We’ve got the all-clear this morning so our operations will go ahead this afternoon.”
She said on Sunday water tanks “had reached critical levels” and the hospital implemented water-saving actions including using hand washing gel and wipes and asking patients not to flush the toilet for a short time.
Writing on Facebook, Anne Marie O’Toole said: “I was at children’s a & e this evening, the staff were professional, courteous, apologetic and very kind.
“They were extremely busy and stretched during this major incident, but standards never slipped, heartfelt thank you to all I came in contact with.”
United Utilities said it worked urgently through the night to repair a leak on Oxford Road, before a further “smaller scale” leak was found on Monday morning at Moss Lane East.
“We are currently in the process of repairing the main,” a spokesperson said.
He added that none of the hospitals were without water during the repairs.
Yingluck fled abroad last month fearing that the military government, set up after a coup in 2014, would seek a harsh sentence.
For more than a decade Thai politics have been dominated by a power struggle between Thailand’s traditional elite, including the army and affluent Bangkok-based upper classes, and the Shinawatra family, which includes Yingluck’s brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was also ousted by a coup.
Yingluck had faced up to 10 years in prison for negligence over the costly scheme that had helped get her elected in 2011.
Yingluck had pleaded innocent and had accused the military government of political persecution.
Nine judges voted unanimously to find Yingluck guilty in a verdict reading that took four hours, and a warrant was issued for her arrest.
The court said Yingluck knew that members of her administration had falsified government-to-government rice deals but did nothing to stop it.
“The accused knew that the government-to-government rice contract was unlawful but did not prevent it …,” the Supreme Court said in a statement.
“Which is a manner of seeking unlawful gains. Therefore, the action of the accused is considered negligence of duty,” it said.
A former commerce minister in her government was jailed for 42 years last month for falsifying government-to-government rice deals in connection with the subsidy scheme.
Norrawit Larlaeng, a lawyer for Yingluck, told reporters outside the court that an appeal was being discussed.
Rural support
The Shinawatras had commanded huge support by courting rural voters, helping them to win every general election since 2001, but their foes accused them of corruption and nepotism.
Under the rice scheme, Yingluck’s government bought rice from farmers at above-market prices, leading to stockpiles of the grain and distorted global prices of the commodity. Losses amounted to $8 billion, the military government has said.
Three members of Yingluck’s Puea Thai Party declined to comment when contacted by Reuters after the court gave its verdict.
Dozens of supporters had gathered outside the court to hear the verdict on Wednesday.
Though her whereabouts has not been disclosed by either her aides or the junta, Reuters reported last month that she had fled to Dubai where Thaksin has a home and lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a 2008 jail sentence for corruption.
Neither Yingluck or Thaksin commented publicly immediately after the verdict. Nothing has been heard from Yingluck since she fled the country, and one of her lawyers, Sommai Koosap, told Reuters outside the court on Wednesday that she has not been in contact.
The leader of the military junta, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, said on Tuesday he knows where Yingluck is but would not reveal it until after the verdict is read.
Thai authorities investigating how Yingluck escaped said last week they have questioned three police officers who admitted to helping her.
Archaeologists have found the first evidence to suggest that Aboriginal people have been in Australia for at least 65,000 years.
The discovery indicates their arrival on the continent was up to 18,000 years earlier than previously thought.
It was made after sophisticated artefacts were excavated from a rock shelter in the Northern Territory.
Researchers unearthed what they say are the world’s oldest stone axes and ochre crayons, thought to be used for art.
The research, which has been peer-reviewed, was published in the journal Nature.
It is based on findings at the Madjedbebe shelter, near Kakadu National Park.
How does this change things?
Australian Aborigines are believed to be the world’s oldest continuous civilisation.
However, there has been debate among scientists about when they arrived, with an estimate of between 47,000 and 60,000 years ago. They would have made sea journeys from the islands of South-East Asia at a time when water levels were much lower.
The lead author of the new research, Associate Prof Chris Clarkson, from the University of Queensland, said: “We have managed to establish a new age for first occupation in Australia and pushed it back by about 18,000 years beyond what was the previous established age of about 47,000 years.”
He added: “This has huge implications for everything from the out-of-Africa story to the extinction of megafauna and Aboriginal peoples’ own knowledge of how long they have been in this country.”
The out-of Africa theory postulates on when humans first left Africa. The dates there have also been hugely debated and have ranged from between 60,000 and 100,000 years. What this new research does is push up the bottom of that range to 65,000 years.
It also confirms that humans would have arrived before the extinction of Australian megafauna such as a type of giant wombat and a giant carnivorous goanna.
A graphic in the Sydney Morning Herald put the new timeframe in perspective, saying that if Aboriginal culture were taken to be 24 hours long, the First Fleet of European settlers in 1787 would have arrived at 23:54 and 56 seconds.
What dating techniques did the new research use?
Radiocarbon dating was used on charcoal samples but this has a limit of about 50,000 years.
To go beyond that, the team used the method of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL).
It is used on buried material, measuring the time that has elapsed since mineral grains were last exposed to sunlight. It was used to date some 28,500 individual grains of sand.
This led to a far more accurate timeframe than was previously known.
So what artefacts were discovered?
The rare artefacts found in the dense lowest layer of the Madjedbebe shelter indicate an “innovative and dynamic early Aboriginal occupation of Australia”, Assoc Prof Clarkson told the BBC.
“We found these beautiful ground stone-edge axes with grooves at one end where the handle would have been attached with resin,” he said.
The team found pieces of reflective art minerals such as mica wrapped around ground ochre, along with a slab covered in red ochre that was mixed with mica.
“It really tells us that people were heavily into artistic activity,” Associate Prof Clarkson said.
What is the Madjedbebe area?
The traditional owners of the area are the Mirrar people.
Their interests are represented by the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, which struck a deal with the researchers over the latest dig.
Mirrar people worked alongside archaeologists at Madjedbebe, helping with the excavation and curation of the material.
Since the 1970s, the Northern Territory rock shelter has been excavated four times, with more than 10,000 artefacts found in the lowest layer of the site.
Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation head Justin O’Brien said that the latest research “shatters previous understandings of the sophistication of the Aboriginal toolkit”
The U.S. request marks yet another major setback for relations between the United States and Cuba, two countries that only recently renewed diplomatic relations after a half-century of hostility. It comes as the U.S. seeks to protect its own diplomats from unexplained attacks that have harmed at least 21 Americans in Havana with ailments that affected their hearing, cognition, balance and vision.
The State Department is expected to announce the decision Tuesday, officials said, though they cautioned no decision was formalized until publicly announced. The officials weren’t authorized to discuss the plan publicly and requested anonymity.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson discussed the plan Monday with President Donald Trump, one of the officials said.
Cuba has denied involvement in the attacks. Though Havana is likely to view the move as unwarranted retaliation, U.S. officials said the goal wasn’t to punish the communist-run island, but to ensure both countries have a similar number of diplomats in each other’s capitals. The United States will formally ask Cuba to pull the diplomats, but won’t expel them forcefully unless Havana refuses, the officials said.
Tensions between the two neighbors have been escalating amid serious U.S. concern about the unexplained attacks on Americans in Havana.
On Monday, The Associated Press reported that U.S. spies were among the first and most severely affected victims. Though bona fide diplomats have also been affected, it wasn’t until U.S. spies, working out of the embassy under diplomatic cover, reported hearing bizarre sounds and experiencing even stranger physical effects that the United States realized something was wrong, several individuals familiar with the situation said.
The mysterious “health attacks” started within days of President Donald Trump’s election in November, the AP has reported. But it wasn’t until Friday that the United States ordered more than half its embassy staff to return home.
Delivering a one-two punch to U.S.-Cuba relations, the U.S. last week also delivered an ominous warning to Americans to stay away from Cuba, a move that could have profound implications for the island’s travel industry. The U.S. said that since some workers had been attacked in Havana hotels, it couldn’t assure Americans who visit Cuba that they wouldn’t suffer attacks if they stay in hotels there.
Cuba had blasted the American move as “hasty” and lamented that it was being taken without conclusive investigation results. But several U.S. lawmakers had said that move by Washington didn’t go far enough, because President Raul Castro’s government was being permitted to keep all of its diplomats in the U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., had called the one-sided action “an insult” in an AP interview.
There was no immediate reaction from Cuba’s Embassy in Washington late Monday after word emerged that the U.S. planned to ask Cuban diplomats to leave. Yet the move will bring the two countries closer to the chilly state of relations they endured for decades until 2015, when they restored formal ties and re-opened embassies in Havana and Washington.
The U.S. previously had roughly 50 American workers at its embassy in Havana, so the 60 percent reduction will bring the figure down to roughly 20. It wasn’t immediately clear late Monday how Cuban diplomats will have to leave Washington to bring the two countries’ rosters to parity.
In Friday’s travel warning urging Americans not to visit Cuba, the State Department confirmed earlier reporting by the AP that U.S. personnel first encountered unexplained physical effects in Cuban hotels. While American tourists aren’t known to have been hurt, the U.S. said they could be exposed if they travel to the island.
“Because our personnel’s safety is at risk, and we are unable to identify the source of the attacks, we believe U.S. citizens may also be at risk and warn them not to travel to Cuba,” the warning said.
At least 21 diplomats and family members have been affected. The department said symptoms include hearing loss, dizziness, headache, fatigue, cognitive issues and difficulty sleeping. Until Friday, the U.S. had generally referred to “incidents.” Tillerson’s statement ended that practice, mentioning “attacks” seven times; the travel alert used the word five times.
Still, the administration has pointedly not blamed Cuba for perpetrating the attacks, and officials have spent weeks weighing how to minimize the risk for Americans in Cuba without unnecessarily harming relations or falling into an adversary’s trap.
In 2015, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro restored diplomatic ties, ordered embassies re-opened and eased travel and commerce restrictions. Trump has reversed some changes but has broadly left the rapprochement in place.
To medical investigators’ dismay, symptoms have varied widely. In addition to hearing loss and concussions, some people have experienced nausea, headaches and ear-ringing. The Associated Press has reported some now suffer from problems with concentration and common word recall.
Though the incidents stopped for a time, they recurred as recently as late August.
ogs really are our best friends, according to a Swedish study that says canine ownership could reduce heart disease. A study of 3.4 million people between the ages of 40 and 80 found that having a dog was associated with a 23% reduction in death from heart disease and a 20% lower risk of dying from any cause over the 12 years of the study. Previous studies have suggested dogs relieve social isolation and depression – both linked to an increased risk of heart disease and early death.
Dog owners show better responses to stress (their blood pressure and pulse rates don’t soar), have higher levels of physical activity and slightly lower cholesterol levels. The American Heart Association was sufficiently swayed by a review of dozens of studies to release a statement in 2013 saying that owning a dog “was probably” associated with a reduced risk of heart disease. Their reluctance to more strongly endorse dog ownership is because most studies are what is called observational – researchers note an association, but can’t prove causation. This means that other factors might explain why dog owners are healthier than, say, goldfish owners – for example, perhaps only people who are fit in the first place buy pets that need daily walkies.
Tove Fall, an epidemiologist and the lead author of this latest study, says they tried their best to allow for any differences in education, existing ill-health and lifestyles between those with and without dogs. The study found the biggest positive impact of having a dog was on people living alone. “It seems that a dog can be a substitute for living with other people in terms of reducing the risk of dying,” says Fall. “Dogs encourage you to walk, they provide social support and they make life more meaningful. If you have a dog, you interact more with other people. If you do get ill and go into hospital and you have a dog, there’s a huge motivation to try to get back home.”
Of course, getting a dog and watching it from your sofa while you eat fatty food is not going to reduce your risk of heart disease. And a toy dog may look cute, but won’t have any effect either. Fall’s study showed the most health benefits came from having retrievers or pointers. Until her German shorthaired pointer died last year, she ran 10km with her most days. “In Sweden, we have one of the lowest rates of dog ownership in Europe,” says Fall, who has recently got a new puppy. “Maybe this will increase the acceptance that dogs are important to people.”
Ibuprofen taken by women in their first three months of pregnancy might reduce a daughter’s number of eggs, potentially affecting the child’s future fertility, according to research carried out on human cells in the lab.
Previous work in rodents has suggested that painkillers including ibuprofen might affect the ovaries and hence fertility, while recent research in men has linked prolonged high doses of ibuprofen to disruption of male sex hormones. Up to 30% of women are thought to take ibuprofen during pregnancy.
“We know that fertility rates have declined over recent years, and essentially we are looking for a potential reason why that might be the case,” said Rod Mitchell, co-author of the research from the University of Edinburgh. “Because it is a relatively recent decline, it is felt that environmental factors [including painkillers] in addition to societal factors might have a role to play.”
Writing in the journal Human Reproduction, Mitchell and colleagues from France and Denmark report how they examined the impact of ibuprofen on developing ovaries using ovarian tissue taken from 185 terminated human foetuses aged between seven and 12 weeks.
In the first step of the study, the team analysed blood taken from the umbilical cords of 13 of the foetuses whose mothers had taken ibuprofen in the hours before termination, to reveal that ibuprofen did indeed cross the placental barrier.
For each of the 185 foetuses, tissue was then cultured under multiple conditions, with one sample exposed to no ibuprofen and others bathed in various concentrations of the drug in a dish, reflecting concentrations that would circulate in humans.
After seven days, compared to samples not exposed to ibuprofen, those bathed in the painkiller at a concentration on a par with the cord blood levels had an average of 50% fewer ovarian cells, and between 50 and 75% fewer “germ cells” – cells that develop into eggs. This was down to an increase in cell death and fewer cells multiplying.
Further experiments showed that the damage began as early as two days after exposure to the ibuprofen for foetuses aged 8–12 weeks. After a five day recovery period for a subset of the samples, only a partial recovery from the effects of the ibuprofen was observed, but only germ cells appeared to bounce back.
But Mitchell cautions that the situation in the body might differ from that in a dish, that it is not clear what level of germ cell loss would be tolerated before fertility is affected, or whether the ovaries could more fully recover over a longer period.
“If we see effects on germ cells, which we do in the dish, that could indicate that there are potential for effects in ‘real life’ and potential for effects on fertility – but we haven’t shown or proved that by what we have done [in this study],” he said.
William Colledge, professor of reproductive physiology at the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the research, said the study was interesting since it looked at a period in which women might not realise they were pregnant. But he had reservations.
“It is a big step to go from something that happens in the petri dish to saying, well, that definitely may happen in a pregnant woman – although it shows that we could be cautious,” he said, adding that the number of germ cells in the ovaries naturally declines from a peak of about three million mid-pregnancy. “At best [women] are only releasing one [egg] each month. So you can cope with the loss of quite a lot of these eggs,” he said.
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