Study reveals cannibalism in first US colony

A top museum and research institution in the US has released a new study, revealing direct evidence of cannibalism at the oldest permanent English colony in the Americas. The Smithsonian Institution reported on Wednesday that settlers at the US state of Virginia's Jamestown Colony resorted to cannibalism to survive the harsh winter of 1609, dismembering and consuming a 14-year-old English girl. According to the Washington-based government organisation, it is the first direct proof of cannibalism at the oldest permanent English settlement in the Americas.