OUAGADOUGOU, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) - A female circumcision rite turned fatal in Burkina Faso Faso, leaving one young girl dead and seven others hospitalised last week, an agency lobbying against the practice said on Thursday.

Scores of girls aged between four and 14 years were circumcised in three villages in Pabre, a district 20 kilometres (12 miles) northwest of the capital Ouagadougou, according to Aina Ouedraogo, head of a national committee against female genital mutilation (FGM).

GENEVA, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - The UN children's fund on Monday called for pressure to be maintained to stop female circumcision in Egypt, where more than three quarters of 15 to 17 year-old girls are subjected to the practice.

UNICEF acknowledged progress by authorities in the country which has clamped down on the practice this year, but said the problem was still widespread.

CAIRO, Sept 2, 2007 (AFP) - Four Egyptian doctors and a midwife are to be prosecuted for conducting female circumcision, a local official said on Sunday, as the government toughens its stand against the outlawed but widely practised operation.

The private clinics of the four doctors in the southern province of Menya have been shut down, governor Fuad Saad Eddin told the official MENA news agency.

Health ministry official Ayman Ragab told MENA there had been nine known cases of female circumcision in the province during the month of August.

CAIRO, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) - Egyptian police are holding a woman who conducted a near-fatal circumcision on a young girl, a widely-condemned practice the authorities are trying to stamp out, the press reported on Friday.

The victim, Naglaa Khamis, went into a coma and suffered severe haemorrhaging after the removal of part of her genitals, but was saved after being taken to hospital by her parents.

Police took the woman who carried out the mutilation in Minya, south of Cairo, into custody.

SYDNEY, July 24, 2007 (AFP) - Male circumcision could prevent millions of HIV infections every year and play a major role in controlling the virus` spread in developing nations, a major AIDS conference was told Tuesday.

US researcher Richard Bailey called on health authorities to actively promote circumcision, saying the scientific evidence left no doubt that it could reduce HIV infection rates by up to 60 percent.