Broken dreams for woman forced to flee IS-held Syria

Razan became accustomed to the new look imposed on women living in parts of northern Syria that were seized by Islamic State (IS) in 2013.

She used to wear modern headscarves with colourful outfits. But the jihadists forced her to wear a long, black abaya, a cloak covering her body, and a niqab, a veil that covered all but the area around her eyes.

But Razan was no ordinary woman. She was a doctor at a hospital and a civil society activist who campaigned against violence, especially violence against women.

During the first two years of the uprising in Syria - before IS first appeared and started to seize northern and eastern parts of the country - Razan and her fellow activists were able to operate freely and press their demands for freedom and democracy.

"It was a golden time", she says. "We had big dreams."

But soon, those dreams turned into nightmares. Razan's public activities had to become secret and she was unable to meet male activists because of strict gender segregation.

Stonings

It got even worse when female jihadists, many of them foreigners, started to arrive in IS-held areas and monitored the activities of women like Razan.

"We used to do a lot of stuff hiding under our niqab because male jihadists would not uncover us," Razan says. "But when the Khansaa Brigade for female jihadists was formed, we were even afraid inside our own homes."

Members of the Khansaa Brigade had the power to remove women's veils, carry out surprise searches of their homes, and monitor what they were doing.
The northern Syrian city of Raqqa is the de facto capital of the "caliphate" proclaimed by Islamic State

Gatherings for anything other than religious purposes were prohibited and those who attended illegal meetings risked punishment by the Khansaa Brigade.

Islamic State's treatment of civilians became more brutal after the group announced the creation of a "caliphate" in the territory under its control in Syria and neighbouring Iraq in June.

"Their violence was beyond description; they terrified people," Razan recalls.

"Public whipping for men and women became a common practice. There were several cases of stoning of women who were accused of adultery by the group."

Even wearing the wrong type of niqab - if it was not light enough or was striped, for example - could lead to a woman being punished. In many cases, Sharia courts got involved.

Bodies on road

One hot summer's morning in 2014, Razan herself incurred the wrath of IS.

When members of the group visited her hospital, they began questioning her and criticised the way in which she was wearing her niqab. Razan covered her face completely to avoid any trouble.

After the men had left, one of them came back and warned her: "Run for your life. They are going to bring you before a Sharia court."

"I owe him my life," Razan says. "I still don't know why he helped me but he saved my life."
Women in IS-held areas of Syria are forced to wear long, black abayas and niqabs

"I left the hospital through a back door and I asked my father to pick me up. I was very worried that they would do something to me. I went to my sister's house. I never returned to my house again nor to the hospital."

A few days later, Razan's friends told her that IS members had been asking about her.

"I was afraid of being arrested, flogged or killed," Razan says.

Soon afterwards, she managed to flee the country by using another woman's ID. The drive to the Turkish border was a terrifying experience, she says.

"I still remember the beheaded bodies on the road.

"In the car there were two children who cried when they saw [them]", she adds. "The heads were lined up on both sides of the road. It was horrific."

'Bitter reality'

Razan was lucky to have a visa for the UK, where she is now living as a refugee.
Razan's most treasured possessions are her house keys and stethoscope

She is safe there, but does not want to be identified out of fear for her relatives in Syria.

Razan says she is determined to pursue her dreams in seeking further education and to continue to support her civil society activists in Syria.

The reality is bitter for Razan and many of her generation who had high hopes of freedom and democracy in Syria.

"My dreams are different from the reality," she says. "The world is preoccupied with fighting IS and is ignoring the source of the problem - Bashar al-Assad."

Razan believes she will only return home once the president is no longer in power.

"I have the keys to my house in Syria. I am sure I will use them one day, hopefully very soon."

Hormone-disrupting chemicals ‘cost billions’

Pesticides can block and mimic the function of human hormones

Common chemicals that disrupt human hormones could be costing more than €150bn ($165.4bn; £108.5bn) a year in damage to human health in Europe, a series of studies claims.

The data suggests the high economic impact of chemicals in pesticides, plastics and flame retardants.

The team, led by New York University, said the estimates were conservative.

However, experts cautioned the findings were "informed speculation" and called for more detailed research.

The data was presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrinology Society.

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can be physically similar to the hormones that naturally control our body's physiology so mimic their function. They can also block the function of hormones.

They have been linked with declining sperm counts, some cancers, impaired intelligence, obesity and diabetes. The main concern surrounds their impact during early development.

The authors of the study argued that limiting exposure would have significant benefits.

'There is uncertainty'

In the EU, one of the most famous disrupting chemicals, bisphenol A (BPA), has been banned in baby bottles and children's toys.

Yet the European Commission says the relationship between EDCs is not clear and has called for more detailed studies.

Many of the conditions linked to EDCs are also influenced by a wide range of other environmental influences. And some scientists contest the levels in the environment are not high enough to influence health.
Some questioned whether BPA, found in babies' bottles, was that harmful

The international research team acknowledge "there is uncertainty" and adapted techniques used by the International Panel on Climate Change to balance the uncertainty with the potential scale of the impact.

Their mathematical models suggested that across the 27 members of the EU, the most likely cost was €157bn ($173bn; £113.6bn) a year, but could be much higher. That equates to 1.2% of Europe's GDP.

This included healthcare costs as well as lost economic potential.

Their calculations said it was more than 99% certain that at least one of the chemicals was indeed having an impact on health.

The major economic impact was from pesticides (€120bn; $132.3bn; £86.8bn), followed by chemicals found in plastics (€26bn; $28.7bn; £18.8bn) and flame retardants (€9bn; $9.9bn; £6.5bn).

Dr Leonardo Trasande, a paediatrician at the New York University school of medicine, told the BBC: "These results suggest that regulating endocrine disrupting chemicals could produce substantial economic benefit that would be less than the cost of implementing safer alternatives and produce net economic benefits.

"Clearly we need further research, but there is a greater than 99% probability that these chemicals contribute to disease."

Lost IQ points

The overwhelming majority of the reported costs were from "lost cognitive potential". The studies claimed around 13m IQ points were being lost across Europe and 59,300 cases of intellectual disability could be attributed to EDCs.

Dr Trasande argued: "If one child comes back from school with one less IQ point, the parent might not notice, the neuropsychologist might not notice, but if 100,000 children come back with one less IQ point then the economy notices."
The main concern over EDCs is how they affect early development

The studies looked at less than 5% of suspected EDCs and did not look at conditions such as cancer and female reproductive diseases. Hence the scientific team argue that these are conservative estimates.

Prof Richard Sharpe, from the UK Medical Research Council's Human Reproductive Sciences Unit based in Edinburgh, told the BBC he agreed with the authors that more research was needed in this area.

But he cautioned: "Most of the content of these publications is interpretation and informed speculation and none of us should lose sight of this.

"What worries me about this approach is that whilst this may help to focus attention on the need for further research to clarify the huge number of uncertainties in these areas, these highly presumptive estimations inevitably become viewed and presented as being far more solid than they actually are."

The man who posted himself to Australia

In the mid-1960s, Australian athlete Reg Spiers found himself stranded in London with no money to buy a plane ticket home. Desperate to get back to Australia in time for his daughter's birthday, he decided to post himself in a wooden crate.

"I just got in the thing and went. What was there to be frightened of? I'm not frightened of the dark so I just sat there.

"It's like when I travel now if I go overseas. There's the seat. Sit in it, and go."

Reg Spiers makes it sound very straightforward more than half a century later, but it caused a media storm in Australia at the time.

He explains his attitude like this: "I've come up with this mad scheme to get back to Australia in a box. Who can say it won't work? Let's give it a shot."

Spiers had come to the UK to try to recover from an injury that had interrupted his athletics career. A promising javelin thrower, he had been on course to compete at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964.

But when it became clear he would not make the games, Spiers set his mind to raising enough money to fly back to Australia, and took an airport job to earn some cash.

But his plans changed when his wallet, containing all his savings, was stolen. With a wife and daughter back home, Spiers wanted to get back to Adelaide, but "there was one catch," he explains. "I didn't have any money."

And with his daughter's birthday looming, he was in a hurry.

"I worked in the export cargo section, so I knew about cash-on-delivery with freight. I'd seen animals come through all the time and I thought, 'If they can do it I can do it.'"
A miniature replica of the box used to promote a book about the escapade

Spiers also knew the maximum size of crate that could be sent by air freight. He had been staying with a friend, John McSorley, in London, and persuaded him to build a box in which he could send himself home.

"He told me it had to be 5ft x 3ft x 2.5ft, (1.5m x 0.9m x 0.75m)," says McSorley. "I knew Reg and I thought, 'He's going to do it regardless, so if he's going to do it I'd better make him a box that at least is going to get him there.'"

Built to Spiers's specifications, the crate allowed him to sit up straight-legged, or lie on his back with his knees bent. The two ends of the crate were held in place by wooden spigots operated from the inside, so Spiers could let himself out of either end. It was fitted with straps to hold him in place as the crate was loaded and unloaded.

To avoid any suspicion that a person was inside, the crate was labelled as a load of paint and addressed to a fictitious Australian shoe company.
The replica shows how straps were fixed inside the box

Although the cost of sending such a large and heavy cargo would have been more than a passenger seat, Spiers knew he could send himself cash-on-delivery - and worry about how to pay the fees once he arrived in Australia.

Packed into the box with some tinned food, a torch, a blanket and a pillow, plus two plastic bottles - one for water, one for urine - Spiers was loaded on to an Air India plane bound for Perth, Western Australia. Although Spiers wanted ultimately to get to Adelaide, Perth was chosen because it was a smaller airport.

He endured a 24-hour delay at the airport in London due to fog, and let himself out of the crate once the plane was in the air.


"I got out of the box between London and Paris, dying for a leak," says Spiers. "I peed in a can and put it on top of the box. I was stretching my legs and all of a sudden, because it's a short distance, the plane began to descend. A little panicky I jumped back in the box, and the can full of pee was still sitting on top."

I was grinning from ear to ear, but I wasn't going to let them know I'm there now - I've almost pulled the whole thing off”Reg Spiers

The French baggage handlers in Paris thought the can's unsavoury contents had been left for them as an unkind joke by their counterparts in London.

"They were saying some terrible things about the English," says Spiers. "But they didn't even think of the box. So I kept on going."

The next stop on the long journey back to Australia was in Bombay, where baggage handlers parked Spiers - upside down - in the sun's glare for four hours.

"It was hot as hell in Bombay so I took off all my clothes," he says. "Wouldn't it have been funny if I'd got pinched then?"

"They had the thing on its end. I was on the tarmac while they were changing me from one plane to another. I'm strapped in but my feet are up in the air. I'm sweating like a pig but not to give up - wait, be patient - and eventually they came and got me and put me on another plane."

When the plane finally touched down in Perth, the cargo hold was opened and Spiers heard the Australian baggage handlers swearing about the size of the crate he was in. He knew immediately he was home.

"The accents - how could you miss?" says Spiers. "I'm on the soil. Amazing. Wonderful. I made it.

"I was grinning from ear to ear, but I wasn't going to let them know I'm there now - I've almost pulled the whole thing off.

"I knew they would take the box to a bond shed. When they put me in the shed I got out straight away. There were cartons of beer in there. I don't drink but I whipped a beer out and had a drink of that."
Reg Spiers in London before his freight journey in 1964

Spiers had survived three days travelling in the wooden crate. But he still faced the challenge of getting out of the airport. Fortunately, his luck continued.

"There were some tools in there so I just cut a hole in the wall and got out.

"There was no security. I put on a suit out of my bag so I looked cool, jumped through the window, walked out on to the street and thumbed a ride into town. Simple as that."

But back in England, John McSorley, who had built the crate and delivered Spiers to the airport, was desperately worried about his friend. Spiers hitchhiked his way back to his family in Adelaide, but neglected to tell McSorley he had come through his journey intact.

In an effort find out what had happened, McSorley alerted the media, and Spiers quickly became a sensation in his home country.

"I got a telegram from a renowned Australian politician," he says, which read, "'A gallant effort by a real Aussie - and here's five quid.' I'm winning big time. It was great."

In the end the airline didn't make him pay the shipping fees. But Spiers admits he was taken aback by the media coverage of his adventure.

"I'd never seen anything like it. It scared the hell out of my mother with the whole street blocked with media. And it would go on for weeks. It was pretty wild."

Spiers succeeded in making it back in time for his daughter's birthday but he still had a job convincing his wife his story was true.

"She didn't believe me," he says. "But then she thought about it and thought 'He must have done it, how else did he get here?' So eventually she rode with it."

Air industry insiders say something like this would never be able to happen now. The hold is usually pressurised and the temperature will usually be above freezing but all cargo loaded on to planes is screened for security reasons and a hidden person would be found.

Harrison Ford injured in plane crash

US actor Harrison Ford has been injured in a small plane crash in Los Angeles.

The 72-year-old star of the Indiana Jones and Star Wars films reported engine failure and crash-landed his vintage plane on a Venice golf course.

He was breathing and alert when medics arrived and took him to hospital in a "fair to moderate" condition, a fire department spokesman said.

His son Ben, a chef in Los Angeles, later tweeted from the hospital: "Dad is OK. Battered but OK!

His publicist said: "The injuries sustained are not life threatening, and he is expected to make a full recovery,"

The nature of Ford's injuries have not been disclosed but website TMZ, which first reported the story, said he suffered "multiple gashes to his head".

Shortly after take-off from Santa Monica Airport, he said he was having engine failure with his 1942 Ryan Aeronautical ST3KR and was making an "immediate return".

He was unable to reach the runway and landed on the golf course, where onlookers pulled him from the plane fearing it could explode.

Officials said the plane had been flying at about 3,000 feet (914 metres) and hit a tree on the way down.

"There was no explosion or anything. It just sounded like a car hitting the ground or a tree or something. Like that one little bang, and that was it," Jeff Kuprycz, who was playing golf told the Associated Press news agency.

"He ended up crashing around the eighth hole."
Hollywood royalty Ford has more films in the pipeline

Christian Fry of the Santa Monica Airport Association said it was "an absolutely beautifully executed emergency landing by an unbelievably well-trained pilot".

Film producer Ryan Kavanaugh witnessed the accident from his office near the airport where Harrison had taken off.

He told The Hollywood Reporter: "He literally had five seconds, and 99 per cent of pilots would have turned around to go back to the runway and would have crashed - it would have stalled, gone nose first and crashed."

"Harrison did what the best pilots in the world would do," he continued. "He made the correct turn that the plane was designed for with an engine out."

'Moderate trauma'

After crash-landing, Ford was initially treated by two doctors who happened to be at the golf course.

Fire Department spokesman Patrick Butler said the LAFD received a 911 emergency call at 14:20 (22:20 GMT) and attended to a "medium-to-high impact" plane crash at the Penmar Golf Course.
The plane crashed just short of the Santa Monica Municipal Airport

There have been calls from local people to close Santa Monica airport, which is situated in a residential district, because of concerns about safety and noise.

Later this year, Ford is reprising his role of Han Solo in the latest addition to the Star Wars franchise, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

He broke his leg in June last year on set at Pinewood Studios while filming a scene involving a door on the Millennium Falcon spaceship.

Ford took up flying when he was in his 50s and is also trained to fly helicopters.

In 1999, Ford crash-landed his helicopter during a training flight in Los Angeles but both he and the instructor were unhurt.

A year later a plane he was flying had to make an emergency landing at Lincoln Municipal Airport in Nebraska. Again he and his passenger escaped unhurt after the plane clipped the runway.

'Erasing History' in Nimrud, Iraq

Islamic State bulldozers 'erasing history' in Nimrud, Iraq

IS says ancient shrines and statues - like this Assyrian relief - are "false idols"


Archaeologists and cultural officials have expressed heartbreak and outrage about the bulldozing of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq.

Islamic State militants began demolishing the site on Thursday, Iraqi officials said.

The UN cultural body's Iraq director, Alex Plathe, called it "another appalling attack on Iraq's heritage".

"They are erasing our history," Iraqi archaeologist Dr Lamia al-Gailanitold the BBC.

IS says ancient shrines and statues are "false idols" that have to be smashed.
Many of Nimrud's artefacts have been transferred to museums in Baghdad and overseas, but giant "lamassu" statues - winged bulls with human heads - remain on site
Nimrud lies just south-east of Mosul, where militants attacked artefacts with sledgehammers last week

Nimrud, which was founded in the 13th Century BC, lies about 30km (18 miles) south-east of Mosul.

Many of the artefacts found there have been moved to museums in Baghdad and overseas, but larger artefacts remain on site.

'Levelled'

Nimrud covers a large area, and it is not yet clear whether it has been totally destroyed, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut, neighbouring Lebanon.

But a local tribal source told Reuters news agency: "Islamic State members came to the Nimrud archaeological city and looted the valuables in it and then they proceeded to level the site to the ground.

"There used to be statues and walls as well as a castle that Islamic State has destroyed completely."