An army of religious sisters who rescue victims of human trafficking by posing as prostitutes to infiltrate brothels, and buy children being sold into slavery, is expanding to 140 countries, its chairman said yesterday. John Studzinski, an investment banker and philanthropist who chairs Talitha Kum, said the network's 1,100 sisters already operated in about 80 countries, but the demand for efforts to combat trafficking and slavery was rising globally.The group, set up in 2004, estimates that 1% of the world's population is trafficked in some form, which translates into some 73 million people. Of those, 70% are women and half are aged 16 or younger."I'm not trying to be sensational, but I'm trying to underscore the fact this is a world that has lost innocence. where dark forces are active," said Studzinski, a vice-chairman of US investment bank The Blackstone Group."These are problems caused by poverty and inequality, but it goes well beyond that," he told the Trust Women Conference on women's rights and trafficking.Studzinski told of one woman enslaved as a prostitute who was locked up for a week without food, and forced to eat her own faeces, when she failed to have sex with 12 clients a day.Studzinski said the religious sisters working to combat trafficking would go to all lengths to rescue women, often dressing up as prostitutes and going out on the street to integrate themselves into brothels.The sisters were also proactive about trying to save children being sold into slavery by their parents, setting up a network of homes in Africa, as well as in the Philippines, Brazil and India, to shelter such children...