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Body of U.S. journalist returns from Syria as death toll climbs

Amid a soaring death toll and a call for airstrikes against the Syrian regime, the body of American journalist Marie Colvin is expected to return to the U.S. today.

(CNN) Damascus - At least 12 people were killed across Syria on Tuesday as government forces took aim at cities across the country, opposition activists said.

The deaths took place in Hama, Homs, Daraa, Idlib and Damascus, said the Syrian Network for Human Rights, an opposition activist group.

Meanwhile, almost two weeks after she was killed by a rocket attack in the city of Homs, the body of American journalist Marie Colvin is expected to arrive in the United States on Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Paris said.

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Society

In Nepal, Good And Bad News About Autism Treatment

Parents in Karnali province started their own center to meet the need. But without adequate government funding, its survival is in doubt.

A 6-year-old girl plays on the ground.

Prem Kumari, 6, plays at home in Surkhet district.

Chandani Kathayat, GPJ NEPAL
Chandani Kathayat

SURKHET — Purnakala Dhakal spends her days feeling constantly overwhelmed. Her 6-year-old daughter, Prem Kumari, has autism, and Dhakal is often afraid to leave her unsupervised. There is no one to help take care of her child; her husband also has a developmental disorder. “My family blames me for giving birth to a daughter who is disabled,” she says. “No one loves or plays with her.”

Knowledge of autism is limited in Nepal, although advocates estimate that as many as 300,000 people may be living with it. To receive a diagnosis, one must travel to the capital. This is what Dhakal did when her daughter was around 2 years old. This is also what Sushila Shahi Thapa did when she sensed her son Alex wasn’t hitting the usual milestones of early childhood development. A resident of Dailekh district, which neighbors Surkhet, Thapa had no knowledge of autism spectrum disorder, despite working as a nurse at a local hospital.

“The behavior my son displayed seemed unnatural,” she says. “When I shared my concern with family members, they said not to worry because some children are slow to start speaking.”

Alex was 18 months old when he received a diagnosis in Kathmandu. Thapa then sought treatment for him at the AutismCare Nepal Society, a nongovernmental organization based in Lalitpur in the Kathmandu valley. Founded in 2008, the organization is run by parents of children with autism. Through the society, Thapa and her husband also received training on how best to take care of a child with special needs; when they returned home, Thapa trained other family members, too.

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