DETROIT — A Detroit-area doctor charged with performing genital mutilation on two 7-year-old girls denied the allegations through her lawyer Monday, insisting that she conducted a benign religious ritual for families of a Muslim sect.

Shannon Smith’s defense of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala contradicted the government’s position that the Minnesota girls were forced to undergo a painful, bloody procedure at a Michigan clinic that left them with scars and lacerations on their genitals. It’s the first time someone has been charged with violating a U.S. ban on genital mutilation.

Smith’s explanation emerged during a hearing to determine whether Nagarwala would stay locked up without bond, following her arrest last week. After hearing arguments, a judge said she was a threat to the public and refused to release her.

“They were the last in a long line of children cut by the defendant,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward said of the two girls who were accompanied to the Livonia clinic by their mothers.

Smith said it is Nagarwala’s “absolute position” that she didn’t mutilate genitals as alleged by the government or even cause bleeding. She said mucous was removed from the girls in February, and the gauze was given to the family for burial.

Nagarwala is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra community, a Muslim sect concentrated mostly in India, Smith said.

The World Health Organization has said the practice of removing or injuring female genital organs has no known health benefits.

Mnuchin: Tax reform unlikely to be enacted by August

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is unlikely to meet its self-declared August deadline for enacting tax reform, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday.

The failed effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act threw off a timetable that even Mnuchin had admitted was ambitious for the complex task of overhauling the tax code, he told the Financial Times.

“It is fair to say it is probably delayed a bit because of the health care” debate, Mnuchin said.

Mnuchin said he still expected tax reform to be enacted this year.

It’s possible tax reform efforts could fail, as did the attempt to replace the health care law. Or, at the least, an overhaul of the tax system could take much longer than anticipated. The last major tax changes, in the 1980s, took over two years to enact.

Hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel launch hunger strike

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons launched a hunger strike Monday, in what their leader behind bars called a new step in the Palestinians’ “long walk to freedom.”

Activists said more than 1,500 of about 6,500 Palestinians held by Israel as so-called security prisoners joined the open-ended protest and that it was the largest such strike in five years. The hunger strikers’ immediate demands included better conditions, more contact with relatives, and an end to Israel’s practice of detentions without trial.

The hunger strike was launched as the approaching half-century mark of Israeli rule over Palestinians.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the June 1967 Mideast war.

Garbage-collapse toll rises; number missing a mystery

MEETOTAMULLA, Sri Lanka — Rescuers on Monday were digging through heaps of mud and trash that collapsed onto a clutch of homes near a garbage dump outside Sri Lanka’s capital, killing at least 30 people and possibly burying dozens more.

Hundreds of people had been living in the working-class neighborhood on the fringe of the towering dump in Meetotamulla, a town near Colombo, when a huge mound collapsed Friday night during a celebration for the local new year, damaging at least 150 homes.

Authorities were unsure how many more people could still be trapped, with contradictory reports being released. They announced 30 people were missing Monday but later reduced the number to 11.

Government forces advance in central Syria

BEIRUT — Syrian government forces and their allies advanced Monday in the central province of Hama under the cover of intense airstrikes, approaching the outskirts of a rebel-held town a day after capturing a strategic town from opposition fighters and militants, Syria’s state media and opposition activists said.

The push toward the town of Tibet al-Imam came a day after troops and pro-government militiamen captured the town of Soran, a month after Soran was lost in a rebel offensive.

Insurgents, including members of al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee, launched a wide offensive on parts of Hama province last month capturing several villages and towns. The government launched a counteroffensive, regaining control of the whole area lost and pushing ahead toward other villages.

Trump group’s ads seek to build support for ACA repeal

WASHINGTON — A pro-Trump group is airing ads in a dozen Republican-held House districts aimed at drumming up support for the White House’s wounded drive to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

The $3 million campaign comes during a two-week congressional recess in which GOP lawmakers’ town hall meetings have been rocked by liberal supporters of Obama’s 2010 statute.

The TV and internet ads by America First Policies are running in districts from Arizona to Pennsylvania, the group said Monday.

Some are represented by lawmakers who backed the GOP legislation, others opposed it and others hadn’t taken clear public positions.

America First Policies is run by former Trump White House and campaign staffers.

Pope emeritus: Benedict XVI, who resigned as pontiff in 2013, has celebrated his 90th birthday with a mug of beer and the company of visitors from his native Bavaria in Germany.

He was born on April 16, 1927, in Germany. But since the birthday coincided with Easter, Benedict was feted on Monday.

Army crash kills 1: A Black Hawk helicopter crashed onto a golf course in Maryland during a routine training flight Monday, killing one crew member and injuring the two others on board, the U.S. Army said. The cause of the crash is under investigation, the Army Military District of Washington said in a statement.